


Yamucha's Student

by Dragoness Eclectic (DragonessEclectic)



Series: Raditz's Return AU [11]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-16 15:56:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 36,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1353223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonessEclectic/pseuds/Dragoness%20Eclectic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Novella) A year after the cataclysmic events of Mythic Descent, a mysterious young man knocks on Yamucha's door, seeking... a sensei? Meanwhile, a sinister cabal is taking control, one by one, of the great monsters: Gojira, Rodan...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

### TWENTY YEARS AGO...

Colonel Jerome Sebastian Dark of the Red Ribbon Army had very little to do but brood. He would have called it planning if anyone had asked him, but no one did. Colonel Dark had very little to do because there was very little to do when recovering from near-fatal injuries, except endure. 

He watched the people around him, chatted with them in a friendly fashion, and asked them all manner of questions about their jobs and families and concerns, so much so that the nurses and medical technicians thought him a very friendly fellow, and wasn't it terrible how General Blue had treated him? In this way, he learned who might be useful to him someday, and how they might best be recruited when the time came. And he brooded. 

He had been so close to the power that was rightfully his! If only Blue hadn't been so jealous, and Leader Red hadn't been so suspicious... just like his father. Dark had grown up under his elder brother's shadow, constantly being reminded that Basil would inherit the wealth, the title, and the respect due the Lord of Northmark. Yes, Basil--foolish, spendthrift, careless Basil! By the merest accident of birth, the idiot would inherit instead of one worthy of the family name and fortune. 

It was unfortunate that Basil was lucky enough to survive the car wreck; doubly unfortunate that Lord Northmark suspected his brilliant younger son. There was no evidence--Jerome was too smart for that--but the old man had disinherited him and driven him from the family lands on suspicion alone. Apparently, intelligence and decisiveness were heritable traits, for his father possessed them as well. 

Jerome would never be Lord Northmark, but someday, he vowed to himself, he would have the power to award himself a much higher title. Yes... Damn that bastard Blue! Because of him, Jerome was in a hospital bed and out of Leader Red's favor, ten years of working his way up through the ranks gone to waste; only his friendship with Dr. Gero had saved him from summary execution. 

The noises outside slowly forced their way to the forefront of his attention. What was going on out there? It sounded like a war was in progress! Jerome's unease rose as Dr. Gero and his best technician, Mathieu Soliere, both came to his bed; Soliere started unhooking monitors and equipment. 

"What is--" 

"No time for that," snarled Dr. Gero. "I'm moving you to my private laboratory; the situation here is untenable. That fool Black denies the inevitable; I know better." 

Jerome struggled to raise himself to a sitting position. "We are being attacked? Who would dare--" 

"Lay back down; you're in no condition to fight!" Gero snapped as Colonel Dark tried to pull himself to a sitting position. "I still have work to do on you...." He muttered something under his breath that Jerome couldn't quite catch. It sounded like "...one small boy." 

*      *      *      *

###  NINE YEARS AGO...

In the distance, fire and explosions lit the night, while the staccato rattle of gunfire echoed intermittently over the waves. Old Ryou ignored the noise; the object of his concern drifted nearby. A small sampan bumped against his boat. The weatherbeaten fisherman shaded his eyes from the conflagration on the distant island and peered into the tiny craft. It was empty--no, there was something there. 

Ryou cautiously raised his lantern and unshaded it, letting the light spill over the sampan. A bundle of bloody rags huddled on the bottom of the small boat. 

"A child!" The old fisherman quickly tied the drifting sampan to his small fishing boat, and leaned over the gunwale to pull the small bloody form aboard. How had the boy survived? the old fisherman wondered as he lifted the terribly wounded child in his arms. The boy couldn't have been more than eight or nine, and the bullet wounds piercing his dying body would have killed a grown man in minutes. Who could have done this to a child, and why? 

The old man did what he could to bandage the boy's wounds and wrapped him in a blanket. "Kuan Yin, merciful goddess, help this child," he prayed as he worked, for the fisherman was a pious man--and obedient to the presence that had sent him out onto the sea at night, searching for he knew not what, until he found the drifting boat. 

The boy's dark eyes blinked open, and he stared quizzically at Old Ryou. "Ayomara?" he whispered. "Is she safe?" 

"I.. don't know," the old man answered truthfully, his heart wrung with pity for the rapidly fading boy. Oh, if only he had some comforting word for the poor child! 

The boy seemed to gather strength from somewhere, and whispered raggedly, "She says to take me to the temple; they will take care of me." 

"She?" The fisherman started to question--then a sweet and loving presence enfolded them both; the boy sighed, and closed his eyes, breathing more easily. 

"Thank you, merciful goddess! I shall remember you at the festival, and praise your name!" The old fisherman carefully rested the injured child's head and shoulders on his lap, and began the long row home. 

The boy's eyes opened again. "She says she's only a servant, but they all know you are a good man." The boy smiled, briefly. "She says to tell you that..." he paused, as if listening, "that your nets shall always be full and your children and grandchildren shall honor you." He frowned, then. "She says I have to sleep now, until the monks can heal me." He sighed again, and closed his eyes. 

*      *      *      *

###  THREE YEARS AGO...

"I couldn't do anything," Yamucha told Puar for the forty-ninth time--or was it the fiftieth? Puar decided that it didn't really matter; she floated down from Yamucha's shoulder and curled up in his lap. "I was useless; I couldn't even keep the miniature Cells from nearly killing me. I didn't move when Goku grabbed Cell, even though I _knew_ what was going to happen, and I couldn't even help Gohan--it took Vegeta to do that!" 

"Oh Yamucha!" Puar hugged him and snuggled against him, purring; out of habit, Yamucha found himself petting the plump blue and gray cat. "You did the best you could!" 

"No, I didn't," Yamucha said sadly. "I was afraid, Puar; I've been afraid ever since Frieza returned. I'm afraid of dying uselessly after living a pretty much useless life." He shook his untrimmed hair back from his face. "I let the fear hold me back... if I had been able to fight the miniatures, if I had been able to do or say _something_ when Goku grabbed Cell... maybe it would have made a difference; maybe the whole burden wouldn't have been on Gohan. Now Goku's dead..." 

Puar looked up at her human companion with wide, distressed eyes. She couldn't bear to see him hurting again, and she regretted not being wise enough to know what to say and do. Puar floated up to his shoulders and hugged Yamucha again, rubbing her furry cheek against his. 

"Yamucha... it hasn't been useless! Think of everything you and Goku did, all the adventures we had, all the villains we stopped!" 

Her words fell on deaf ears; Yamucha still brooded about the fight with Cell. "My strength meant nothing to that monster! Gohan was losing even with all my power and Tien's and Piccolo's. It took _Vegeta_ to make the difference!" Yamucha gently stroked the sweet grey and blue cat. "Face it, Puar--I'm no help to anyone anymore." 

Puar hugged him; a single tear ran from her blue eyes and rolled over the creamy white fur of her face. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. 

*      *      *      *

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 1. The Student


	2. Prologue

### One Year Ago...

The young man stared at the door at the end of the hall, rocking from one foot to the other. He'd come a long way to get to this point, a long, tiring way across the city to this apartment; further yet in years and miles and hardship from the small village where he'd been born. 

The dark-haired young man finally stepped forward, raising one hand as if to knock on the waiting door, and then lowered it again. What if no one was home? What if someone was home, but he had the wrong address? He knew he looked poor and unimportant; if the wrong person answered that door, they might call the police! The young man straightened the dark jeans and rust-brown tank top he was wearing, and combed his hair back yet again before re-tying the white headband that kept it out of his dark brown eyes. He hoped he didn't look too disreputable. 

What if the right person was there, but he made a fool of himself by being so presumptuous? What if they said "No"? What if... enough! He'd never know if he didn't ask, and he'd never get to ask if he couldn't bring himself to knock on the door! Whatever would be, would be. He snapped his hand back up and rapped smartly on the door. 

"Who's that?" came from inside, and then the door was flung open. A muscular, dark-haired man with a scarred face stared at the young man; a blue and gray cat clung to his shoulder, and meowed into his ear with an oddly unfeline squeakiness. 

Momentarily frozen by his own shyness, the young man stared rudely into the older man's dark eyes for a long moment before remembering himself. He dropped his gaze. 

"Yamucha-san?" the young man asked in a low, formally polite voice. 

"Yes. Who are you?" the scarred fighter asked bluntly. 

The young man bowed. "Habotan Saisei. You do not know me, but I have heard of you, Yamucha-san." Saisei looked at the cat sitting on Yamucha's shoulder; there was something unnervingly intelligent in the cat's wide-eyed stare. "Is this a good time to speak with you?" 

"Uh, yes; come in." Yamucha pushed back his own uncombed hair and backed up, holding the door open so Saisei could enter. "This is my friend Puar," Yamucha said with a nod to the large cat. "Um, would you like something to drink?" 

"No, I--uh, well, yes." Saisei looked around the small but comfortable apartment. He hesitated, not sure what to say next. 

"Cola?" The scar-faced man poked around in his refrigerator, and finally found a few soft drinks behind the beer, one of which he offered to Saisei and one to Puar. 

"Yes, thank you." Saisei accepted the cold drink gratefully. His eyes widened as Puar drifted down, picked up the cola and settled on the table to drink it. That was no ordinary cat! 

Yamucha's eyes narrowed as he looked the young man over. 

"You walked here from--?" asked Yamucha. 

"I biked, from South Ward." The younger man gulped down the cold drink. 

"Eeep!" squeaked Puar. 

"Whoa! Why do you want to see me so bad that you biked all the way over from South Ward? You're not carrying a baseball, so I don't think you came for my autograph," Yamucha said, a slight, amused smile on his face. 

"Your reputation as Satan City's best ballplayer made you the easiest to find, Yamucha-san." Saisei smiled briefly, revealing a handsome, brilliant sun behind the clouds of his serious demeanor. 

"Easiest to find of what?" Yamucha was suddenly wary. 

"Easiest to find of the Turtle Master Mutenroshi's senior students, Yamucha-san. I wish to become your student in the Way of the Turtle, and such other advanced schools as I may prove worthy of." Saisei bowed again. 

"Eeep!" Puar squeaked again. 

Yamucha sat down abruptly, incredulous. The boy was asking _him_ to be his sensei? "Uh.. do you have _any_ idea what you're asking?" 

"Yes, Yamucha-san. I am not a beginner; I have mastered the arts of Karate and Aikijutsu; there is no more my sensei in those schools could teach me. My karate sensei told me of the legendary Kamesennin, the Turtle Master, and I sought him out." Saisei bowed his head. "Alas, Master Mutenroshi does not take students any more, but in his kindness he gave me the names of his finest students, and suggested that one of you might be able to train me." 

Relief flooded Saisei; he _had_ found the right person, and the words seemed to unfold themselves from his tongue. It was as he had been taught: from Right Thoughts flowed Right Speech and Right Action. 

"Mutenroshi thinks you're one of his finest students??" Puar exclaimed to Yamucha. 

Yamucha chuckled nervously, looking slightly abashed. "If he says so, I guess I am. Well..." He regarded Saisei thoughtfully. No one had ever asked to be his student before; no one. 

"Maybe you do know what you are asking. But.." the scarred warrior looked intently at him, "talk is.. talk. Before anything else, we have to find out if you have what it takes for me to even _begin_ to think about training you." Yamucha pointed a finger at Saisei. "There's a park around the temple east of the city on Cherry Blossom parkway. Meet us there at dawn tomorrow, and we'll see what you've got." 

*      *      *      *

The next morning... 

Saisei landed hard, tearing chunks out of the sod as he vainly tried to stop his headlong tumble. Finally he came to rest facedown, gasping, tears of pain leaking from his eyes. With slow, laborious effort, he pushed his right arm under him and managed to raise himself to a sitting position, only to find Yamucha in front of him. 

"Yamucha!" Puar said, "Be careful! He could get hurt!" 

"You're good," the scarred warrior said, "really good... You really did master two major fighting styles in less than ten years!" He chuckled nervously. "You know it takes most students decades to master _one_ style, right?" Yamucha paused. "You learned a good set; those aikijutsu techniques let you fight a stronger opponent--but they don't help against a faster opponent." 

"I know," gasped Saisei as he hauled himself to one knee, and then stood up, swaying. Blood trickled from the corner of a cut lip, a crimson streak against his deeply tanned face. "That's why I need the training." 

Puar hovered beside Saisei, looking him over with concerned eyes; she'd already decided that she liked the determined young man. 

"Yes." Yamucha raised one eyebrow. "Why you want to be able to fight opponents like that--you're good enough to defeat any ordinary fighter. Who are you planning to fight?" Yamucha asked suspiciously. 

Saisei wiped the corner of his mouth. His eyes narrowed. "The dogs who murdered my parents and took my older sister." 

"What??" chorused Yamucha and Puar. 

"They came to our island when I was only eight; they wanted the island, but they didn't want any witnesses.. so they killed everyone in our village. Almost everyone; they took the older girls and boys away with them." Saisei's voice was tight and cold. "I was too young to be one of their slaves--I was beaten and shot and left for dead." The savagery in the young man's voice was almost palpable. "Do you know how much a child can hate? Hate kept me alive--I refused to die, because I knew they wanted me dead. I got out of there--the details aren't important--and I swore that I would avenge my family." Saisei's fists were clenched tightly at his side. 

"Oh, dear!" Puar clung to Yamucha's shoulder, looking distressed. 

Old pain shadowed Yamucha's face. "Yes, I know how much a child can hate. Who are 'they'? And why didn't you--" 

"--get help? Call the police?" He laughed bitterly. "My home was on an island off the coast of your northern neighbor. No laws are ever broken by those in the favor of the 'People's Revolution'," he said scornfully. "No. I have to do this myself, and I have to be even stronger than I am now to destroy them." 

Yamucha once again raised an eyebrow, and Puar looked worried. "Who's that powerful? You're strong enough to take on half the old Red Ribbon Army by yourself!" 

Saisei blinked, then shook his head. "I don't know who or what they are, exactly, except that they have some kind of base on the island--I've gone back to scout once or twice--and that a few of them are very, very powerful." He said no more. 

Yamucha regarded him thoughtfully for long moments, then he nodded. "Okay, I'll train you." 

"Hooray!" cheered Puar. 

*      *      *      *

###  One Month Ago...

"HIII-YAAAA!" A bolt of white energy streaked through the air from Saisei's cupped hands. 

Yamucha twisted in mid-air, handily dodging Saisei's ki blast. "That's IT! Watch your energy and don't lose your focus afterwards. Now, BLOCK!" With that, Yamucha lazily tossed a small sphere of energy at his determined student. 

Saisei's eyes widened, and he crossed his arms in front of his face-- 

WHOOM! The ki ball exploded, leaving a singed and smoking student in its wake; half Saisei's gi was burned away. Yamucha shook his head and sighed. "I don't get it--you have the power, you can channel ki just fine, but you just can't block them! I guess we need to work on that block some more..." 

Saisei's power and skill had grown by leaps and bounds through a year of hard training--but that one thing continued to hinder him. He couldn't bring himself to block the dangerous blasts; he could only dodge them. There was an awful inevitability about the white flare of energy that froze him in place; he could no more block Yamucha's ki blasts than he could block fate itself. 

*      *      *      *

"Saisei, what are you going to do afterwards?" Yamucha asked as he and Saisei cooled down by tossing a few baseballs back and forth after a particularly frenzied training session. Puar hovered near, now that training was safely over for the day. "There's more to life than revenge." 

Saisei looked blankly at Yamucha. "I.. don't know." He clenched his right hand into a fist. "Everything I've done has been to the moment when I avenge my family! I don't think that I... I never really thought beyond that. It seemed an impossible goal to reach so soon, but now, with your training..." He smiled wryly. "I'm better than I ever thought I could be, and I'm ready, now--if you agree, of course, Yamucha-sensei." 

"You're _almost_ ready--well, you're all ready as far as training goes. You'll get stronger with time and practice, but there's very little more I can teach you...." Yamucha trailed off, his face suddenly somber. 

"Sensei, what do I lack? Why do you doubt me?" Saisei was genuinely puzzled; after long hours of exhaustive training with Yamucha, he was on the verge of finally overcoming his weakness with ki-blocks. Over the last year, he had gotten stronger, faster, better--though he was still far from a match for Yamucha. 

Yamucha paced. "Who are you, Saisei? What does your life mean to you? I hope it's worth something beyond one act of vengeance; I didn't teach you everything I know so you could throw your life away." 

Puar nodded vigorous agreement. 

"I.." Saisei stared at the older warrior and the cat helplessly. "I don't know. Ever since my parents were killed, I've done nothing but work toward avenging them, and what else I needed to do to sustain myself." 

Yamucha smiled unexpectedly and put his hand behind his head. "Well, at least you know you don't know, if you know what I mean." He laughed nervously, embarrassed at his own awkwardness. "We're going to take however many days or weeks it takes for you to find out the answer." Yamucha grinned, and continued, "You're going to find out what life has to offer!" 


	3. The Lord of Monsters

### One Year Ago...

The radio crackled. "The somni-inducer is in place, Colonel," said the voice of Dr. Soliere over the earpiece nestling in the tall, black-haired man's ear. 

Colonel Jerome Sebastien Dark smiled, showing perfect white teeth; things were going as planned. He turned to the man beside him, his long black ponytail swaying with the sudden movement of his head. 

"I told you that you worried too much, Pie Pie," he said with rich, aristocratic British accent. 

The man he addressed stared back at him blankly--which was to be expected, for much of his head was cybernetic reconstruction, including his eyes. His narrow, hard mouth--which was his own, not a mechanical replacement--flattened out from a frown into an expressionless line. He sniffed. 

"I do not 'worry', but I will not be satisfied until Soliere has that monster fully wired," Tao Pie Pie said coldly to the broad-shouldered, sharp-featured commander. "This is no mere dinosaur!" He frowned again. "A creature of this magnitude... if it gets loose and I have to deal with it, you will pay me an additional 100 million zenni!" 

"Of course, my dear Pie Pie. I shall dock the surcharge from Mathieu's pay if he is so careless," Dark smiled indulgently at the fretful assassin. He flipped open a small video communicator. "Perimeter Security One--report!" 

The communicator came to life, revealing the scowling face of a gorgeous blonde woman. "Colonel Dark, all is secure! No air or sea-surface traffic." 

Dark smiled again. "Thank you, Mistress Lunch. Carry on." 

"Perimeter Security Two--report!" 

Again the communicator crackled; this time two green, almond-shaped eyes stared out of a beautiful young woman's face. Light and shadow played across her high cheekbones in shifting waves; she was beneath the water. "All is secure, Colonel. No sub-sea traffic, and the seismographs indicate no subterranean activity." 

Dark smiled and glanced at Tao Pie Pie. "Thank you, Mist. Carry on." He looked at Tao Pie Pie again. "Your apprentice does well; she is a credit to you--and well worth the extra fee." 

Tao Pie Pie smiled coldly. "Of course. She is _my_ apprentice." 

Dark nodded politely, blue eyes glittering. "Of course." 

Dark's earpiece crackled again. "Soliere, here. The main assembly is in place, and I'm ready to implant the control harness." 

Dark flipped the curved wire-mike up from its resting place below his chin to in front of his mouth. Hard lips curved up in a wicked smile. "Excellent! You may proceed, Dr. Soliere." 

Tao Pie Pie tensed; this was always the riskiest part of the operation. At least they were on dry land this time; if he had to fight a rogue monster, there were places to land and solid footing. He hated fighting over water--though the late Dr. Gero had long ago assured him that the cybernetic replacements were just as waterproof as his own flesh, Tao Pie Pie had a fear of what might happen if damaged cybernetics were plunged into all-too-conductive seawater. 

After several tense moments, Dark's earpiece crackled again. "Soliere, here. The control harness has been successfully implanted and the external somni-inducer removed. Somni-inducer functions were successfully switched over to the control harness; operation complete. Over and out." 

Dark smiled cruelly. "Perfect!" He whispered, "Gojira is mine!" 

*      *      *      *

###  Now...

A ruddy sun sank from a clear red sky into a blood-red sea. The Sykes Line freighter _Maria Sykes_ was three days out of port and well ahead of schedule. Captain Surokawa looked over the weather report; nothing more serious than scattered thundershowers. Good--not that he was worried about anything less than a hurricane; he ran a tight ship and had a good crew. However, coming in ahead of schedule for the fifth time in succession certainly couldn't hurt his upcoming evaluation. 

A few hours after sunset, Captain Surokawa looked up from his desk. Something was wrong; the whole ship vibrated. Then came a noise like an old rusty hinge screeching as it was forced open--a hinge the size of a building, deep underwater. 

"What the--??" Captain Surokawa cursed, and grabbed for the nearest rail as the ship heaved upwards-- 

The ship heaved upwards as the pressure wave hit it, and then shuddered as the hull buckled from below. The shattered hull was forced up--in the last instant of his life, the Captain glimpsed something grey and spiky, with mad yellow eyes--and then the hull split apart with a horrid groan of twisted metal, crushing and drowning all within. 

Something huge flung its head back and screamed that terrible rusty hinge noise at the sky, once, and then dove. 

*      *      *      *

On a certain remote island, an grey-uniformed aide handed a message to Tao Pie Pie as the assassin entered his employer's presence. His cybernetic eyes shifted focus to study the message, and a thin smile spread across his face as he handed the message to Colonel Dark. "Mistress Lunch reports that they have accomplished their mission, and will be departing for base with the prisoners tomorrow night." The assassin smiled unpleasantly. 

Colonel Dark smiled back, very pleased. "Excellent! I shall have to commend her; I did not expect success so soon!" He leaned back in his command chair. "And Gojira's mission?" 

"The ship reached the zone of operation a day early. After Gojira is done, the Seatopians should be able to recover the cargo." Tao Pie Pie frowned. 

"What is it, Pie Pie?" Dark asked, alerted by his subordinate's discomfiture. 

"The Seatopians are not to be trusted," Tao Pie Pie said. "They hate you, and obey only under duress. You should destroy them now, before they find a way to cause trouble." 

"They can do nothing. We control their god-monster Megalon, and they know it! In any case," he waved one hand languidly, "they hate all surface dwellers. Even if we did not exploit them, they would hate us for stirring up the deep sea monsters." Colonel Dark noted Tao Pie Pie's persistent frown and added, "When we are done with them, I will dispose of them. I do not leave vengeful enemies at my back, but for now, I have need of their talents--and I will pay you no extra fees for them! If they betray us, their civilization dies that much sooner." 

"That does answer certain of my questions." Tao Pie Pie's cold smile returned. "Who is next on the schedule--Gamera? Or.." 

Dark's piercing blue eyes glared at him, and his smile faded to a tight line. "Have you anything to report on Monster Zero?" 

Tao Pie Pie shook his head, wincing internally. Damn that he had to bring up that topic again! The missing Monster Zero was a sore point with Dark, who particularly wanted the winged leviathan. "Your best sources indicate that what's left of him might be found at the bottom of Lake Vaikal...." Tao Pie Pie paused, waiting for Dark to pick up the implications. 

Dark almost frowned. "In the People's Republic." It was not a question, it was a statement. 

"Yes. The High Command has not been... cooperative. They seem to think you have enough monsters to deal with their southern neighbor. You will have to secure the Republic to obtain the monster you desire to secure the Republic.." the assassin shrugged. 

Dark began to pace. "A pity; I had hoped to get more out of our alliance with the People's Republic before destroying them. We have Gojira, Rodan and Barugon as mobile assets. A decapitating strike, taking out the Politburo and the High Command, should throw the Army into enough confusion that only a few monsters will be necessary to secure the country." The grey-uniformed colonel tapped his thumbs together, thinking; then glanced at Tao. "What is the current status on the rest of our assets?" 

Tao Pie Pie nodded. "Megalon is in reserve to insure the good behavior of the Seatopians. Reptilicus is in reserve because he is simply too slow and vulnerable--though his incredible regenerative ability makes up for a great deal. That over-sized shrimp of Soliere's--Ebirah?--is strictly water-breathing and useless for anything practical, in spite of what Dr. Soliere claims." 

"Ah, yes." Dark nodded dismissively. "Obstacles?" 

"When Mistress Lunch arrives with her prisoners, the possibility of Mothra's interference is eliminated. As for Gamera, your people may have located the child who can summon him--" 

"You have? Good." Dark's smile turned less wintery. "Deal with the child correctly, and Gamera will not be a problem." 

Tao Pie Pie smiled cruelly. "Kill the boy?" 

Dark stopped smiling. "One of the things I value you for is your intelligence, Tao. You are rapidly decreasing in value right now." 

Tao Pie Pie winced; he hated being called by his family name. It was disrespectful--and he would have killed anyone else who dared call him that, paying customer or not--but he deserved it this time. "Ah. How stupid of me! Yes, harming the child who summons Gamera would be.. unwise. Simply watch him, then?" 

"No. Arrange to have his parents win a all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World for the whole family, or something like that. Make sure he's on the other side of the world, and happily involved in something that demands his entire attention when we commence our final stage of operations." Colonel Dark smirked. 

Tao Pie Pie also smirked. "Of course!" He shook his head. "I seem to have forgotten the art of subtlety over the years." He bowed to Dark. "The student teaches the master." 

*      *      *      *


	4. What Life Has to Offer

"This is good!" Saisei pushed his chair back, smiling at Lina, Yamucha's current girlfriend. That night's adventure had been dinner and a movie with Lina and Nezumi, Lina's roommate; Lina had proved to be an excellent cook. 

"Yes, it is!" said Puar as she flew around the table to wrap her paws around Yamucha's head in an exuberant hug. 

"I told you!" Yamucha said smugly. "Lina is the best cook I know!" 

Lina raised a raven-black eyebrow. "And how many cooks do you know?" she asked archly. 

Yamucha turned red and looked panicky for a moment, then Lina laughed. "Never mind; I was teasing. You're far too easy to rattle, Yamucha." She gave him a friendly smile. "To tell the truth, I learned how to cook from 'Zumi, here; she's a much better cook than I am." 

Nezumi giggled and waved her fingers at the two men, as if to say "yep, that's me". She was a short woman with short brown hair, freckles, and an incredibly sunny, outgoing nature that completely overwhelmed Saisei. 

When he and Yamucha and Puar had arrived, Nezumi flung open the door and yelled over her shoulder at the top of her lungs, "THEY'RE HERE!" Laughing merrily, she'd flung her arms around Yamucha and then Saisei, hugging them both in turn. 

Saisei had been paralyzed; he stammered something polite, his face red with embarassment. There were very few women at the Buddhist temple where he'd been raised, and none of them had been like Nezumi. 

Nezumi giggled and put a finger to her lips. "Don't panic, I already have a boyfriend." 

Yamucha seemed slightly befuddled by Nezumi's attack, and was also stammering. Relief crept through Saisei; it wasn't just him. Perhaps he wasn't as ignorant as he'd feared; perhaps Nezumi was just unusual. 

A short time later he sat on a cushion that turned out to be a large stuffed bear. Nezumi looked at him reproachfully. "You're sitting on Mr. Muggins," she said. 

"I'm... sorry. I didn't know," he said, startled. He jumped up from his seat on the bear and inspected it carefully. It showed no signs of being alive. Relieved, he sat the plush bear to one side; at least he hadn't squashed a living creature like Puar. "I don't think I hurt it." 

"'S okay, Mr. Muggins isn't supposed to be out here anyway," Nezumi said with a giggle as she pounced on the offending bear and carried the brown plush creature down the hall. Saisei thought he heard her lecturing the bear about straying out of his room, and shook his head. He must be imagining things! Then he glanced at Puar, who was curled up among a small pile of plush-toy cushions.... But the bear wasn't alive! Really! Saisei decided he was right; Nezumi was unusual. 

They all enjoyed the movie, a tragic melodrama; Lina and Nezumi cried at the sad parts and cooed over the handsome but tragic hero and his doomed romance, while Yamucha and Saisei appreciated the street fights between the feuding factions, the big grudge fight with the scheming villain at the end, and the really good popcorn. 

"I'm not surprised he lost the fight," Saisei observed. "That's no way to hold a sword! I'm only amazed that the prince managed to hit him, because he couldn't hold a sword either---OWWW!" 

Saisei rubbed the back of his head where Lina had just hit him with her purse. "How did I offend?" 

Yamucha chuckled. "It's best not to worry too much about the fighting skills of the actors--at least not out loud. It looks fake to _us_ , but to everyone else it looks good enough to tell the story." 

Lina laughed. "You don't tell me about the martial arts goofs in the movie, and I won't tell you just how much I kept wanting to grab that girl and shake some sense into her. Honestly, if I'd ever acted like that, my mother would have spanked me black and blue! It makes for a great drama, but do you know anyone who actually carries on like that?" 

Yamucha thought for a moment, comparing the obsessed, tragic heroine with Bulma, Lina, and Nezumi in turn. "Uh, no." 

"There you go." 

*      *      *      *

Several days later... 

The sun had set hours ago by the time Saisei carried his bicycle up to his small, cheap apartment. He didn't dare leave it out on the street; in that neighborhood, it would be gone as soon as he turned his back, and he could ill afford to buy another. Dock laborer's pay was scarcely enough to pay his rent and food--and he was eating more now. Training under Yamucha, biking across the city each way, plus a full day's work at the docks demanded a great deal of energy from his body, and his body demanded food in turn. Fortunately, part of that demand was met by the evening meals at Yamucha's apartment, or he'd have been forced to choose between paying the rent and going hungry. 

Money was tight, time was tighter. Saisei had to be up before dawn to join the rest of the morning shift unloading and loading the big freighters; after a full workday, he'd bike over to the park to train with Yamucha again, and return to his apartment just in time to wash up and go to bed for a good seven hours or so--just like he was doing now. 

The next day, however, was a weekend; no work, and Yamucha-sensei had mentioned something about going to a ball game... 

After turning out the light, Saisei looked out the grimy window of his apartment for one last time before turning in for the night. As his eyes adjusted to the half-lit street outside, he watched the usual figures passing by: laborers going home or out to drink, drunken sailors and prostitutes from the bar across the street, less savory individuals on less savory business-- 

One caught his eye. It was too dim to see the man's face as he left the dive, but there was something oddly familiar about the blocky build and rolling walk. It was a sailor's walk, but Saisei didn't think he'd seen him on a ship yesterday or the day before. Where had he seen the man before? 

He shook his head and tumbled into the broken-down bed--and into old nightmares of pain and murder, all overseen by the man in the grey coat with the cold blue eyes. 

*      *      *      *

Puar settled down on her favorite cushion as Yamucha searched his apartment. 

"Where in all this mess is my good glove?" He dug through the locker at the foot of his bed, tossing odds and ends on the floor. 

"Upper shelf of the hall closet," Puar said in her high-pitched voice. 

"Oh, right." Yamucha brushed his hair back from his face. "I forgot that's where I threw it after last year's game." He grinned unexpectedly at the blue and gray cat. "I should take better care of things, I guess." 

"Yes, you should," the little cat scolded as she floated up to the closet shelf in question and handed Yamucha his baseball glove. He put it on his hand and tossed a ball into it several times, grinning. 

"Yamucha," Puar said as she settled onto the back of a nearby chair, "you should play more often. You love it so much!" Her eyes were wide, pleading. 

Yamucha frowned briefly. "You know why I don't play anymore." 

"But it makes you so happy when you do!" Puar said, still pleading. "You've been sad for so long..." A tear escaped Puar's right eye and stained the fur of her cheek. 

Yamucha noticed. "Puar, please... You know I only enjoy the first game, and then it's like it was last year, or the year before." His shoulders slumped. "And baseball was not what I liked best..." 

"Oh, Yamucha!" Puar floated up to his shoulder and hugged her human friend. "You shouldn't have given up that, either. You were so miserable until Saisei showed up--" 

Yamucha's head jerked up at that. "Yes, I was." He turned his head and looked at her out of one eye. "Maybe I am doing something worthwhile by training the kid and passing on my skills.... I learned a lot more than I thought from Mutenroshi and Kami." He laid the glove and ball down next to the clean uniform he'd be wearing tomorrow. 

"I'm so much weaker than Goku or Vegeta--especially Vegeta! I thought I wasn't any good at all. I'm still not any good in the kind of fights Goku gets into, but I know a lot--and I can teach what I know," Yamucha mused. "And maybe I can help Saisei out with whatever trouble he's gotten into." 

Puar's eyes widened. "Please be careful, Yamucha. I have a bad feeling about Saisei's enemies...." 

*      *      *      *

"GO, YAMUCHA!" Saisei, Nezumi and Lina screamed from the stands as Yamucha rounded the bases. Nezumi hung onto their drinks as the fierce young man jumped up and cheered his sensei on. Puar hovered with them, her small voice lost in the general din. 

After the game, they gathered at a certain bar and grill popular with sports fans and players alike. 

"Yamucha-san, why do you not play more often?" Saisei asked, looking distressed. "It delights you, I can see that. If my training interferes--" 

Puar made a face; she'd had this same discussion with Yamucha herself. 

Yamucha waved him to silence and handed Saisei a beer. "No, no, it's not that. I only play exhibition games because, well.. I'm too good." His face reddened, and he seemed almost embarrassed. "You saw how it was; they always walk me when I get to the plate--better one free base than a guaranteed home run. It takes the fun out of it, so I pretty much quit." He shrugged. "What do you do when you're already the best there is? Nothing to work for, really." 

Lina idly drew patterns on the table with her fingertip. "I wouldn't say that. If you really are the best, I can think of things you could do," she said, smiling at Yamucha in a way that made him _very_ nervous. 

Puar hovered next to Yamucha's shoulder; her eyes widened as she stared at Lina. Was she really saying what Puar thought she heard? 

Saisei, oblivious to the by-play, said, "At the temple, the very best became teachers. Could you not teach baseball?" 

Yamucha looked slightly startled. "You mean coach? I never thought about that... I suppose I could." He regarded Saisei thoughtfully. "I think of myself as more of a fighter than a baseball player, though--and I am teaching you that right now!" 

Nezumi's eyes sparkled. "Hey, you could teach Saisei to play baseball! I bet he'd be good at it!" 

Something leapt in Saisei's dark, almond eyes, and a smile crossed his usually serious face. "Actually, Yamucha-sensei taught me baseball as part of my training." He had finally learned the ki-block after learning some analogous moves from baseball--catching a hard pitch, hitting a fastball. At least, he thought he had. He could block Yamucha's attacks in training--but could he stop a true enemy? 

Unaware of Saisei's worries, Yamucha grinned. "Yes, the kid's a pretty good batter, and he can pitch, too." He looked at Saisei. "Hey, when you've got your, uh, personal matters sorted out, I'll recommend you to a scout I know. I think you'd have a real good chance if you try out." "I'm pretty good at softball, you know," piped up Nezumi. "We could--" 

"--no, we couldn't," Lina interrupted, looking at her watch. "We're on next shift, remember?" 

Nezumi's eyes widened as she looked at her watch. "Oops! You're right." 

"Sorry to ruin the party, guys, but we've got to run," Lina said. "Duty calls." 

Yamucha raised an eyebrow. "You're working pretty long hours, aren't you?" 

"Hmmmph! This is nothing compared to what we were working after the earthquake. Raditz finally got enough new people and got things sorted out to where we weren't each doing the job of four people. Anyway, we've got to go." Lina tossed down the rest of her soda and nodded to Nezumi. 

"Umm, see you later," Yamucha said wistfully as they left. 

*      *      *      *

"So, what do you think?" Lina asked Nezumi as she started going over the paperwork piled on her desk. 

"About Yamucha or Saisei?" Nezumi smiled as she tossed papers from one basket to the next, or into the trash. 

"Either. Both." 

"Well..." Nezumi turned her face up and rested her chin on her fingertips. "Saisei is cute, but really shy--which makes him twice as cute!" She giggled. "Awfully serious, though--like Raditz." 

"Even the Chief isn't _that_ serious--he knows how to laugh at himself," Lina responded, picking up some of her own paperwork. She turned the papers over with an expression suggesting that the document had suddenly sprouted slimy growths all over. "That kid is just young enough to take himself and the entire world dead seriously. I hope he gets over it soon." 

Nezumi wrinkled her nose. "Radi-kun _mocks_ himself; he doesn't laugh at himself in a nice way. I've only seen him really laugh when Mr. Son brings little Goten over. I agree with you about Saisei; besides, he's much cuter when he smiles." 

" _Radi-kun?_ " Lina raised a black eyebrow. "Are things more serious than you've told me about?" 

Nezumi blushed and hid her face. "Well... no," she answered in a small voice. "I just hope they will be." She peaked out between her fingers. "And what was that you said to Yamucha? 'I can think of things you could do'?" 

It was Lina's turn to blush. "Yes, that was a bit blatant, wasn't it? But darn it, I wish the man would make up his mind. I don't want to break up with him, far from it, but we've been going nowhere for months. He just might be a keeper, but I can't tell if he wants to be kept, you know?" Lina shrugged helplessly. 

"Well, at least he's not gay!" Nezumi giggled. "Remember what we thought when the Chief first came on as Bulma's bodyguard?" 

Lina broke up laughing. "Oh God, yes!" 

In his office, Capsule Corporation's Chief of Security wondered at the merry feminine laughter ringing down the hall. Raditz finally sighed and shook his head; humans were so strange sometimes. 


	5. Trouble on the Waterfront

After Lina and Nezumi left the bar, Yamucha stared pensively into his beer. Why had Lina taken the afternoon shift at work? She had to have known it would cut their date short. Maybe she _wanted_ to cut it short! Damn. He was starting to lose her already. 

Puar sighed in exasperation; she recognized the signs. Every time Yamucha met a nice girl, he couldn't believe his good luck--or rather, he couldn't believe that any woman really cared about him as more than a friend. It was never long before he started looking around for signs that she was ready to leave him--and if he looked hard enough, he inevitably found them. 

If Puar had been capable of hating anyone, she might have hated Bulma for tearing Yamucha's heart out and taking all his self-confidence with it... except that it wasn't really Bulma's fault. Puar had tried to warn Yamucha for months after his resurrection that Bulma had changed since her trip to Namek, and he couldn't keep treating her the same old way. He'd finally understood, but it was too late by then; far too late. 

"Yamucha-sensei," Saisei spoke abruptly, startling Puar out of her gloomy thoughts, "I need your advice." His face had changed abruptly, his smile vanishing into a thin, grim line. 

Yamucha just raised an eyebrow quizzically and nodded. 

"Sensei, I have seen one of my enemies here, in the city. I think I can find him again if we act tonight--but that will start something that I can not turn back from." 

"Think there'll be trouble? Lots of trouble?" Yamucha asked, oddly hopeful. 

Saisei nodded. "Oh, yes. I am sure of it." 

A wicked grin slowly crossed Yamucha's face. "Then what are we waiting for?" he asked as he got to his feet. "Let's go!" 

*      *      *      *

Hours later, Saisei was having second thoughts about his plan. Their quarry still hadn't shown up at the waterfront dive down the street from Saisei's apartment, and the bartender was giving them steadily sharper looks as time wore on. Periodically, Yamucha appeased the bartender by signalling for another beer; Saisei was beginning to wonder if the two of them would still be capable of handling the enemy when he showed up. 

One of the two professional women still in the bar smirked scornfully at him and Yamucha, as if to say, "I know what you are." Saisei stared back at her quizzically; he couldn't begin to grasp what she thought she knew. 

The other one, a thin blonde woman dressed in high-heeled sandals, a mini-skirt and a blouse cut too low for her to safely bend over, sauntered toward them and scratched Puar under the chin, cooing "What a cute little kitty!" 

Puar tried her best to ignore the woman, only to be scratched behind the ears and petted; the blonde woman seemed to enjoy the feel of Puar's fur beneath her fingers, and Puar didn't really dislike being petted. "I like cats," she finally said, confessing the obvious to Yamucha. 

Yamucha acknowledged her with a nervous smile, color touching his scarred cheeks, but did not move; she pouted, and looked at Saisei hopefully. He shook his head; he wasn't interested. Even if he had been, one of his enemies was out there, and he didn't need to be distracted now. The girl pouted again and made her way back to the bar, looking for other customers. 

Trouble in the shape of a hard-eyed blonde wearing a black trenchcoat walked in the door. She was accompanied by three scruffy-looking men; the lead was a big blocky man, bald with a scar across his right eye-- 

\--He was the one, his enemy from last night! Saisei hadn't truly recognized him as an enemy until he saw the man's face in his nightmares, nightmares of blood and pain as the mercenary machine-gunned his parents, then turned his gun on the terrified boy.... 

White-hot hate flashed through him and burned away the muzziness from too much beer, leaving Saisei coldly alert. Part of him cringed--this was not Right Thought!--but something else deep in his soul snarled with satisfaction and anticipation. The men dressed like sailors, but the way they moved--mercenaries! He glanced at his sensei-- 

Yamucha sat up, staring open-mouthed at the blonde. "Lunch! What are you doing here?" Puar, startled by the sudden move, fell backwards off of Yamucha's shoulder onto the floor. 

The blonde's head snapped around, and she stared hard at Yamucha with peridot-green eyes. "Yamucha??" She laughed coldly. "I guess the reports of your death were greatly exaggerated! What happened to your hair? Did you run head on into a buzz saw or what?" 

"I cut it," he said, puzzled, then his eyes narrowed as he took in her companions. "Who are your friends, Lunch?" 

Puar peeked cautiously over the edge of the table, and didn't like what she saw. "Eeep!" she squeaked quietly, and hid under the table again. 

The bald, scar-faced man with Lunch whispered to the blonde; she nodded in return and looked back at Yamucha. "They're business associates." She swaggered over to the table Yamucha and Saisei shared. "Who's the pretty-boy, Yamucha? I didn't know you were interested in that type." 

The three with Lunch and the scornful prostitute at the bar laughed coarsely as Saisei reddened. Yamucha stared angrily at her, and then frowned. "If I didn't know you better, I'd think you were trying to start a fight, Lunch--but I know you know better than that." 

He got to his feet, poised. Several other tough characters drifted over from the bar, and suddenly the small table was very crowded. 

"I suppose I do, but.. boys will be boys. They just have to have their fun--right, Haze?" She stepped back as the bald guy stepped forward, grinning a gap-toothed smile; brass knuckles gleamed on his right fist as he smacked it lightly against his left hand. 

"Your 'business associate' is going to look stupid without the rest of his teeth, Lunch," Yamucha said cooly. 

"Yeah, right." Haze scowled, then his eyes lit in recognition; he laughed nastily. "I'm going to enjoy this; I lost 500 zenni on the game because of you! Let's see how tough you really are, ballplayer!" 

Yamucha tossed back the rest of his beer and smiled cockily. "Nah, I don't think so. You aren't worth working up a sweat." 

Under the table, Puar wiped her face with one fat paw. "Whew!" 

"I'd let my cat do it..." Yamucha added, smirking as Haze's face darkened with anger. 

"Eeep!" Puar squeaked and tried to spread herself flat against the underside of the table. 

"...but my friend here wants a bigger piece of you than my cat does." Yamucha grinned insolently. 

Lunch leaned against the bar, looking mildly amused. Haze and his thugs had Yamucha and Saisei's full attention as they maneuvered around the two of them; neither of them noticed Lunch signal the bartender, nor heard what she whispered to him. 

Haze scowled angrily, and then smirked nastily. "Betcha work up a sweat with yer girlfriend there, ballplayer!" Haze leered and made an obscene gesture. 

Saisei stood, crouched in fighting stance, his face hard. 

"The little girl is upset. Well, come and do something about it!" Haze taunted. 

"I shall... murderer!" Saisei growled--and then there was nothing but a blur, followed by thuds, screams and groans as men crashed to the floor, slammed into walls or flipped over the bar and then crashed to the floor. Haze himself writhed on the floor, holding his broken right arm and pulped hand, screaming as Saisei hammered him repeatedly. 

"Oh, no!" Puar exclaimed from her hiding place under the table, but the small sound was lost in the general mayhem. 

"Saisei! That's enough! He's down, he can't fight you anymore!" Yamucha shouted, appalled. 

Saisei's hand, poised to shatter Haze's left kneecap, halted in mid-air. Saisei turned his head, looking at Yamucha. There was something inhuman and empty in his eyes. 

"Why?" he asked in a disturbingly calm voice. 

Yamucha started to answer- 

"Damn it, Yamucha! Why don't you fight!" Lunch screamed as she pulled two Uzis out from under her coat. Patrons dove for cover as as bullets sprayed everywhere. Lunch snarled and forced the bucking muzzles down, hosing a stream of lead straight at Yamucha-- 

Click! Click! Both guns were empty, and Yamucha stood there smirking, one closed hand held in front of him. Lunch gaped at him as he grinned, and opened his hand; a pile of bullets dropped to the floor. Beyond him, Saisei stared, his victim momentarily forgotten. 

"Ooooh! I hate you!" Lunch threw the empty guns at Yamucha and pulled two automatics from hip holsters. 

"My turn," Yamucha said, and brought his other hand from behind his back. It opened, and a small cloud of black powder hit Lunch in the face. 

"AH-AHH-CHOO!" She sneezed violently as the pepper got in her nose, hair instantly turning dark, long and soft. 

"What--what? Ah-ahh-choo!" Blonde Lunch was back, screaming. "YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU FOR TURNING ME INTO THAT WIMP! AH-AHH-CHOO!" 

Brunette Lunch looked around at the tough waterfront dive and the unconscious battered men. "Yamucha?" she said, big brown eyes wide and lip trembling. "What am I doing here? Ah-ahh---mmph!" 

Her sneeze was abruptly cut off as Yamucha clamped a hand over her nose. "Let's get that little allergy of yours under control, okay? Take a nice slow breath and have a drink." 

Saisei just stared in amazement. "Who is she, Yamucha-san? Is she...?" 

"--an old girlfriend? No, we're just acquaintances. She was Tenshinhan's girl for a long time, though. I guess you noticed, she, uh, changes whenever she sneezes." 

"Did I do that again?" Brunette Lunch giggled, and slowly sipped the beer Yamucha handed her. Again, Yamucha's attention was elsewhere, and he did not notice the sudden poker face on the usually expressive bartender as he served up two more beers for Yamucha and Saisei. 

Puar finally started to creep out from under the table... 

"Yamucha-san, I am sorry, but I am not.. so good at.. drinking.. ash you'er.." Saisei slumped forward on the bar. 

"'S okay.. that lash roun's.. really.. stron--" Yamucha didn't finish the sentence before falling off the bar stool, out cold. 

"Yamucha?" Brunette Lunch leaned over. "Was it something I said?" A remaining speck of pepper drifted into her nose. "AHH-CHOO!" 

Blonde Lunch grabbed the nearest napkin and blew her nose. "That's better! Where are my antihistamines?" She searched through her purse and pulled out a pillbox, from which she took out an small blue pill and quickly swallowed it. Only then did she look triumphantly down at Yamucha and Saisei. "Jerome will LOVE these two!" She laughed wickedly and walked over to the still-moaning Haze. 

"Get up, you crybaby!" She kicked him in his broken arm. "Get the rest of these losers moving, and take those two to the ship--alive!" Lunch stalked out the door, leaving the battered thugs to their own devices. 

"Bitch!" Haze muttered, cradling his broken arm. "Oh yeah, I'll get those two _to_ the ship alive, but they aren't going to enjoy the rest of their very short lives!" 

"Oh, dear!" Puar whispered to herself. "Yamucha's in big trouble again!" 


	6. Captives!

Puar carefully peered into another dirty porthole and sighed in disappointment. Still no sign of Yamucha! Puar floated up to the cabin roof and sat, deep in thought. She'd watched Lunch and her henchmen carry Yamucha and Saisei to this ship, and to this deck, so they had to be here somewhere. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen Lunch or Haze, either; they must be in interior compartments. Haze had been hurt, so he was probably in the sickbay, but Lunch could be anywhere. If she could find Lunch and follow her, the blonde woman would lead her right to Yamucha. She'd have to be careful, though--Lunch knew what Puar looked like! 

A mouse crept down the passageway of the ship, slipping into the first open door. At the moment, the room was unoccupied; Puar the Mouse looked around quickly; she was in the ship's radio room. Alerted by the sound of footsteps outside, Puar scurried under the radio operator's desk. Three people entered. 

"Radio base and tell them we have two more prisoners... special prisoners," said Blonde Lunch to the radio operator. "Code it direct to Colonel Dark and copy to Soliere--the prisoners are for him, after all." Lunch chuckled evilly. 

An equally unpleasant masculine laugh echoed with Lunch's. "I guess that means we have to keep 'em alive, huh? How much fun can we have with 'em in the meantime?" Haze said nastily. His arm was in a sling and there were several cuts on his face; Puar couldn't help feeling an unbecoming bit of glee at that. 

"None, you idiot! Keep them sedated and strapped down, or we'll all regret it!" Lunch snapped, then turned to walk out. She paused and looked back over her shoulder. "And don't think you dump the guard duty on Mist just because your arm is broken, Haze. She had to stay here babysitting the little goddesses while we were having fun. Since you're going to be in sickbay for a while, you might as well do something useful there." Puar could hear her boots ringing on the steel deck all the way down the corridor. 

"Bitch," Haze muttered under his breath. A moment of silence, and then, "Well, get to it!" 

"Yes, sir," the radio operator answered in a bored tone, drumming his fingers while staring pointedly at the open door. 

Haze snorted. "Oh, all right, I'll leave! You take this radio security crap too seriously, you know that?" Puar listened to Haze stomp down the passageway in the same direction Lunch had gone. 

The radio operator was too busy encoding and transmitting his messages to notice the little mouse run out the door and down the passageway... 

*      *      *      *

Puar woke up in the dark. Her ribs hurt, and her head ached; what had happened? She blinked, trying to clear the sleep out of her eyes as events came back to her.... 

She found them both strapped down in the ship's sickbay. Puar frowned, her small furry brow creased with worry. Yamucha was so still--too still. Puar floated up beside him; his eyes were closed, and only the rise and fall of his chest showed that Yamucha was alive. 

"Yamucha?" she squeaked. Nothing; he did not move. Puar reached out and stroked his face with one soft, furry paw. Still nothing. "Yamucha! Wake up!" she whispered urgently in his ear... to no avail. 

The blue and gray cat floated across to the other bed, where Saisei was strapped down. She patted his cheek with her soft paw--and he stirred! His head twitched slightly. Puar patted him again. 

"Saisei! Wake up! Hurry!" she whispered loudly, pushing at him, trying to get him to move. 

Saisei mumbled something incomprehensible, the words heavy and slurred as his tongue stumbled over itself. He tossed his head from side to side, and pulled weakly at the straps holding him. After a moment, he mumbled again, and settled down. 

"Saisei! Yamucha! What am I going to do now? I need to wake one of you up to get us out of here!" Puar floated down to Saisei, and tried to unbuckle his straps. Intent on her task, she never heard the footsteps in the corridor outside; nor did she hear the footsteps stop, and step into the sickbay. 

Pain shot through Puar's ribs as something hit her hard in the side. The impact sent her flying across the room to slam into the unyielding metal bulkhead headfirst.... 

"They caught me!" Puar squeaked, sitting bolt upright, only to wince at the violent throbbing in her head. 

"Yes, they did," chorused two small voices next to her. 

"Eeeeep!" Puar jumped into the air, only to strike her sore head painfully against a very low ceiling. "Wh-who are you?" her voice quavered. 

A dim light appeared, held in the hand of a very small girl--about a foot tall, dressed in a traditional kimono. Standing next to her was another very small girl who appeared to be her twin. On closer look, Puar realized the very small girls were not little girls, but very small adult women. 

"We are the twin kami of Kyojin-shima," they said, bowing together. "We are prisoners here. Who are you?" 

Puar looked around; they seemed to be trapped in a small box, no more than two feet by three. At least there were air holes, she noted; she could escape if they weren't guarded. But what on earth was going on? And how could she rescue Yamucha? 

"I'm Puar. My friend Yamucha is a prisoner, too; I tried to rescue him. I failed," she said, downcast. 

"Oh, no!" the kami chorused, and ran over to pat Puar comfortingly. "We were kidnapped from our island by a strange blonde woman with green eyes and a dark-haired girl with a sword who also had green eyes--green eyes are magic, you know. They put in this box; they feed us, but they don't want us to know where we are or who they are." 

"You're on a ship," Puar said, "but I don't know where you are going. Why don't they want you to know where you are?" 

"If we knew where we were, we could summon Mothra to rescue us. He is the guardian of Kyojin-shima, and he carries us where we need to go," the twins chorused in their sing-song voices. Everything they said, they said in chorus. 

"MOTHRA!" Puar squeaked in alarm. "Mothra, the moth-monster? I thought he was killed years ago?" 

"He was, but his twin children grew up to take his place. We were captured once before, by a man who did not believe we were kami; he tried to make us a circus attraction!" The tiny twins crossed their arms in indignation. "There was much trouble before we were returned to Kyojin-shima, for without our songs, the kyojin become wild and wander away from the island." 

"Kyojin? Who are the kyojin?" Puar's eyes were wide; they widened still further at the answer. 

"The great monsters--Gojira, Gamera, Giran, Angilas, Rodan, Barugon, Mothra, the giant spiders and mantises, and many others. The giant insects do not wander, but the dinosaur-kyojin do." The kami nodded together, "You can see that there could be much trouble." 

"Oh, dear!" squeaked Puar yet again. "Why have they captured you?" 

The twins looked at each other. "We think they are doing something with the kyojin--many of them have been missing lately--and they do not want us using our songs to interfere." 

Puar sat down and thought. "We all need to escape! Will you help me rescue my friends, if we manage to get out of this box?" 

The doll-like twins nodded eagerly. "Of course! If we get outside, we can call friends to help with our songs. But we don't know how to get out--we are not very strong ourselves, and we are usually guarded." The tiny black-haired women pointed out the airholes. 

Puar started washing herself, starting behind the ears. "Can you tell if anyone is close by? I can't hear anyone, but they could be very quiet." 

The twins looked at each other, and consulted each other in whispers. Then they cautiously began to sing very softly--and stopped abruptly as something banged the side of the box. 

"No singing! I told you that before, sisters," came a rebuke in a woman's soft voice from somewhere near the box. "I would not like to hurt you, but I will not let you use your magic to threaten our mission!" 

The twins looked at each other and Puar anxiously. "You see? They have a guard on us all the time!" 

Puar sighed. "Well, sooner or later they have to ease up, or they'll make a mistake, and we'll take the chance when it comes." 

*      *      *      *

The chance still hadn't come days later, when the deep throbbing of the ship's engines slowed down to idle and then finally halted. Shortly after that, Puar heard heavy footsteps and voices. 

"You'll get your liberty after the prisoners are secure!" snapped Lunch's voice. "The little goddesses are dangerous--the most dangerous of all, you dolt! _All_ the prisoners must be safely locked down, on base, before you and the boys go riot ashore--or do you want to explain to the Colonel that his most valuable prisoners escaped because you were too busy racing to the Cantina?" 

There was a muttered reply, and Puar felt their box lifted and carried. They were carried for several minutes, turning this way and that, up and down before being set down on something that vibrated. Puar listened intently; the noise and the smells told her that they were on a truck. 

The truck promptly revved up and drove somewhere, bouncing and jarring the occupants of the small box. Just as Puar was getting ready to try her escape, the truck stopped, and loud voices greeted the driver. Once again, their small box was lifted and carried somewhere; the harsh glare of fluorescent lights leaked through the airholes. The box was set down with a hard thump; something creaked and strained, and one end of the box came off. Light flooded in. 

Puar blinked and peered out; their prison now opened into another box, this one of transparent plexiglas and much larger. Blonde Lunch stood nearby, frowning down at them. Beside and slightly behind her stood another woman, a green-eyed, dark-haired girl of serious mien dressed in thigh-length tunic and trousers. Puar could see a sword slung over her shoulder. 

"You can get in there on your own, or we can just dump you out," Lunch snarled, green eyes flashing. 

Puar gulped and hurried into small plastic chamber; the twin kami timidly followed. Puar stopped and looked up at Lunch. 

"Lunch, why are you doing this?" Distress filled the magical cat's high voice. "You were never this mean before." 

Lunch scowled, and slammed the metal gate of the plastic cage shut. She leaned close to the cage and hissed, "That was then, cat!" Lunch straightened up, her face tight with some turbulent emotion. As she turned away, Puar wondered: were those tears in Lunch's eyes? 

Across the room, a tall, lean figure stood and watched. Puar's fur stood on end; there was something disturbingly familiar about the man in the strange metal mask. She was sure she'd seen him before, without the mask. 


	7. Experimental Subject #12

Saisei's head hurt, his queasy stomach churned, and the pounding feet walking slowly across the room were far too loud. Ugh, he thought, I should not have drunk so much beer last night. 

He started to turn over--and could not. Something was wrong, very wrong. Saisei's eyes flicked open; he gasped as the bright lights stabbed into his aching head. Still, he could see that he wasn't in his room, or Yamucha's apartment; he was flat on his back in a room with a boring tile ceiling and clusters of very bright lights hanging over him. It reminded him of something, but he couldn't remember exactly what. 

His ears worked; he could hear someone moving about across the room. He breathed, he could see, he could feel a cool draft against his cheeks--but no matter how much he willed it, Saisei could not move anything below his neck. He couldn't even feel his arms and legs--he was completely paralyzed. 

Another kind of paralysis took over what was left--the paralysis of fear. It crept up his throat and seized his tongue; he was afraid to call out, to draw the attention of he knew not what. The fear crept down his chest, and touched his heart, causing it to race wildly; it gripped his lungs, leaving him gasping for breath. Saisei was completely and utterly helpless; he couldn't run, he couldn't fight, he couldn't even look his fate in the eye. 

No, wait--he could turn his head; he could do that much. Saisei turned his head toward the noises. 

A small man with faded brown hair stood by a computer console, making entries at the keyboard. Saisei could now see that he was laying on a gurney--and the significance of the lights leaped to the forefront of his mind. Those were the lights of an operating room! 

"Wh-what happened to me?" Saisei's voice came out in a hoarse whisper as it fought the irrational fear clutching his throat. 

The small man turned abruptly to look at Saisei, one eyebrow raised. "Ah, you're awake! Very good, I've been waiting on you." His voice was annoyingly cheerful, and so was the smile on his face. "I need to get some readings on your conscious brainwaves before we move on to the next stage." 

"Brainwaves? What's wrong? Why can't I move?" Saisei gasped hoarsely as the fear threatened to smother him. 

The small man walked over to the helpless Saisei and looked down at him, still smiling. "Nothing's wrong, that's just a temporary neural block to keep you from thrashing around and hurting yourself." 

He reached behind Saisei's head and busied himself with things out of the young man's sight. Saisei felt his hair being parted, and things stuck to his scalp and the nape of his neck. The small man began to whistle as he worked, something Saisei found incredibly annoying--annoying enough to drive out the lurking fears. 

"Who are you and what are you doing to me?" Saisei asked a bit sharply. 

"I am Dr. Mathieu Soliere, and I am attempting to get a three-dimensional map of your brainwaves, young man. Without that, there's no chance of the control harness working." He resumed his whistling, and Saisei gritted his teeth. 

"I don't think I like the sound of that," growled Saisei. 

"You would like it much less if the harness worked badly, stimulating the wrong brain centers--pain instead of pleasure, for example." Soliere's voice was still insanely cheerful. "You know," he said as he hooked up wires to some unseen apparatus behind Saisei's head, "you're the first subject I've had in a long time that I could talk to. Monsters are lousy conversationalists." 

"I am not your subject!" Saisei snapped. 

"Don't be delusional; it's much too early in the process. I'd rather you not become delusional at all, but it's such a common coping mechanism among intelligent creatures that I imagine you'll resort to it eventually. Aha!" Something clicked, and Soliere stepped back into view, beaming. "I'm getting nice clear readings from the pickups. Just keep talking; I need a good baseline." 

"I am not your lab rat," Saisei growled. "I do not know what you think you are doing, but I will have no part of it!" 

Dr. Soliere stared down at his subject, the first hint of a frown on his face. He sighed. "Of course you are not a lab rat; rats are far too unsophisticated for this experiment. You are, I suppose, a guinea pig--as the weaker of my two human subjects, you are slightly more expendable and thus will be the first to be fitted with a control harness designed for a human." 

Fear edged back, but this time it was fear for another. "Who is the other subject?" Please don't let it be-- 

"The other fighter captured with you--Mistress Lunch called him 'Yamucha'." Dr. Soliere whistled between his teeth, examining the monitor in front of him. "Ah, that's good. Now to localize your pain centers...." 

Saisei's heart sank, and he paid little attention to Soliere's activities. Yamucha had been captured, and was at the mercy of this callous little man! His sensei was in trouble because... because... because of him! If Saisei had not been so obsessed with revenge, Yamucha would not have-- 

Something pricked his scalp, and an unpleasant buzz vibrated through his skull for a moment. Silence followed, then another prick and buzz. 

"What now?" Saisei snarled. 

"Now, you sleep," answered Soliere. "I can't have you twisting about while I'm implanting the electrodes." A click, and suddenly an immense tiredness fell on Saisei, and he fell away into darkness. 

*      *      *      *

Some indeterminate time later, Saisei awoke flat on his back beneath the lights. This time, his head was held immobile, in some kind of brace, and his teeth were wedged apart by a piece of rubber. Dr. Soliere was beside him, looking alternately at him and at a small device in his hand. 

"Ah, good. You responded well to the somni-inducer; unfortunately, I need you conscious for calibration of your pain centers." The doctor smiled gently. "I'm afraid this part won't be pleasant for you, but it is necessary--you are much too uncooperative for me to proceed further without the proper neural restraints." 

Dr. Soliere pressed a button on the small console in his hand-- 

PAIN! Stark agony coursed through Saisei's body--the agony of being burned alive as fire slowly seared the skin and flesh off his bones, the pain of every bone being crushed to splinters and every joint being wrenched apart, the tearing agony of his entrails being ripped out, over and over and over, without end-- 

As suddenly as it began, it ended. Saisei found himself gasping for breath, his throat raw from screaming, his teeth sunk deeply into the rubber mouth protector. He dimly realized that without it, he would have bitten his tongue off. Sweat ran off him in rivers, and his heart hammered as if to burst. 

Dr. Soliere beamed. "Oh, very good! That was an excellent set of readings--I can already see that I need to adjust the microvoltage down somewhat." 

Dr. Soliere set down his console and wiped Saisei's wet face with a cool, damp cloth. The doctor smiled proudly. "You did very well, young man; all of my previous human subjects were too weak to survive calibration. Their hearts gave out, you see." He puttered about with his controls, and then said, "You need to rest before we continue calibration. It won't be quite as bad; I need to calibrate the pain receptors for the major motor centers of your body, but I'll use a much lower microvoltage." So saying, he pressed another button, and Saisei fell unconscious once more. 

*      *      *      *

Doctor Soliere woke Saisei to fresh torment. Each round consisted of taking readings from the previous round, adjusting pickups and electrodes, and then a switch was pressed, triggering the electrodes implanted in Saisei's brain, pulsing searing or stabbing or tearing pain in some part of his body. 

None of it was as bad as the all-consuming agony of that first time; never again did Saisei become the screaming, mindless _thing_ he'd been. He was coherent enough to beg, pleading with tears streaming down his face for the little doctor to stop; Saisei promised to do anything the callous scientist wanted if only he would stop the pain. 

It did not matter. Soliere studiously ignored Saisei's pleas and methodically continued his program. Saisei could only suffer, and learn to fear the bland little man who controlled his pain. He began to flinch in terror every time Soliere's hand reached for the control panel, and Saisei despised himself for it. 

No! Remember Right Mindfulness, Saisei thought during one of the intervals between rounds of torment. It is not me, it is _him_! Should I curse myself because my body bled when those bastards shot me? No! _They_ are the accursed ones! Curse them, and curse this vile doctor! 

He honed his hatred for the genial little doctor to whom Saisei was nothing more than a lab animal, to be tormented for the doctor's insane research. As the button was pressed, and pain ripped off his leg and crushed his thighbone to powder, Saisei held on to one idea: he would kill Doctor Soliere before he died, no matter what. It was not Right Thought, nor would doing so be Right Action, but a part of him took great comfort in the thought. 

At last Doctor Soliere stopped, beaming. "Very, very good." He patted Saisei gently on the cheek as he removed the mouth protector and brace. "I have all the readings I need for that; tomorrow we start on your pleasure centers. I promise you that will be _much_ more enjoyable." He laughed merrily. Saisei hated him. 

Something buzzed, and the doctor looked up. "What now?" He muttered, and ran across the room, out of Saisei's sight. The tortured youth lifted his head; the rest of his body was still paralyzed. Soliere appeared to be talking on the telephone to someone--and he was not enjoying the conversation. 

Saisei dropped his head back down. The simplest effort was exhausting; even his neck muscles trembled with the effort, and sweat poured off his face. What sins did I commit in my past life, to be punished so? Whatever they were, I am surely atoning for them now, he thought. 

Soliere hastened back to Saisei, frowning. "Things are moving faster than I thought, and the Colonel wants the two of you ready as soon as possible. I'm sorry, but you're not as necessary as subject Yamucha, so we will not be able test your pleasure centers until I am done with him." The little brown-haired man sighed. "Fortunately, wiring up a simple restraint harness to the existing implants is a trivial task--I can't have you running about free to cause trouble, but I don't want to leave you paralyzed. That would be unhealthy, and you need to be in good health for my experiments." 

The doctor continued to chatter as he moved back and forth, attaching various small metal objects to Saisei's head, and removing wires and putting consoles away. 

"There," he said at last. "Your restraint harness is attached, and I'm about to remove the neural block..." Doctor Soliere flipped a switch-- 

Saisei gasped as feeling flooded back into the rest of his body, a pins-and-needles prickling as his nerves woke back up. He flexed long-paralyzed muscles, gratified to feel them respond in spite of the receding numbness and tingling. He could feel the restraining straps tieing him to the gurney, and waited for full control to return... 

Doctor Soliere smiled at him. "Feeling better, now?" 

"Yes," Saisei answered hoarsely as he focussed his ki. Then he lashed out, his ki-focussed strength snapping the stout leather restraints like tissue-- 

And collapsed, arching his back and screaming, as agony tore through every nerve in his body. As he writhed in pain, each violent move sent fresh spasms of pain stabbing through his muscles, triggering fresh convulsions and more pain until he could only twitch feebly, mewling mindlessly as the agony seemed to shred his flesh into tiny gobbets. As he stopped thrashing, the pain finally subsided, leaving Saisei moaning and quivering on the gurney. 

Doctor Soliere clucked reprovingly. "They always have to find it out the hard way. I _did_ tell you the restraint harness was in place." He smiled condescendingly at Saisei. "It is programmed to allow minimal and slow movements, so that you can work your muscles and tend to bodily needs, but if you violate the parameters..." The little man shrugged. "You already know the results. Furthermore, if you were to try to remove the harness... well, let's just say that it would be a bad idea." The doctor shook his head. "And don't forget I have a controller for your harness, should you outwit its simple programming." 

Saisei glared at him from where he lay. Finally, he started to pull himself upright-- 

"No! Lay down and stay there until I tell you otherwise," Soliere said preemptorily. He walked away, back to the telephone and called someone. 

Saisei raised himself slightly and looked around. Over there! The breath hissed sharply between his teeth; he'd found Yamucha. His sensei was strapped to another operating gurney, unconscious, wires running from his head and neck to machines nearby. Saisei growled; he recognized those machines! 

So he's got Yamucha asleep and paralyzed... all ready for his hellish experiments! I've got to get loose, get this thing off my head, somehow... Saisei slowly raised a hand to his head, trying to feel the thing that clung heavily to his scalp. A warning tingle prickled his fingers and joints as he did so; it intensified as his hand got closer to his head. He put his hand down again. Better not; I'm not ready to deal with the pain-maker yet, Saisei thought. 

A short while later a familiar figure, one arm in a sling, pushed open the door and entered. 

"Hey, Doc, whaddaya need?" grunted Haze, glancing around the room. The bald man smirked as he saw Saisei and Yamucha. 

"Escort subject number twelve, there, to his cell. See that he's maintained in a healthy condition until I'm ready to resume experiments with him." The short brown-haired man waved dismissively at Haze, and turned back to the prone figure of Yamucha. 

"Yes, sir!" Haze grinned, and sarcastically snapped a salute at Soliere's back. He sauntered over to Saisei. "Can you walk, pretty boy, or do I have ta push ya on this here gurney?" 

"I can walk," Saisei growled, eyes narrowing, "slowly." With exaggerated care, he sat up and levered himself off the gurney to stand on his own feet once more. 

Haze looked him up and down, smirking. "Doc gave you a control harness. Ooooh, scary! You're a monster!" He laughed mockingly. 

"Haze, stop babbling and get him out of here!" Doctor Soliere interrupted. "The noise is distracting, and I don't need distractions right now!" 

Haze pushed Saisei toward the door, indicating that he should go in front. As they left Soliere's laboratory, Saisei could hear the little doctor crooning to Yamucha, "Ah, you're awake! Very good..." 


	8. Lover and Servant

Colonel Dark paced the length of his command center. He wasn't worried, it was merely his way of thinking. Jerome Sebastien Dark always thought better on his feet. Eyes the color of winter ice fixed abruptly on Tao Pie Pie. 

"I have decided," Dark said, "to change The Plan. We will take the People's Republic next. Draw up a battle plan and have it ready for my review by this time tomorrow." 

Tao Pie Pie nodded, bowing slightly to his employer as he did so. A smirk crossed his face. "Should I include Soliere's new subjects?" 

"Yes--and give Mathieu a heads-up that I will be needing his new toys soon." Colonel Dark smiled genially, and waved a dismissal to Tao Pie Pie, turning back to the large computer screen before him. 

As Tao Pie Pie left, he passed the dayshift communications officer. The grey-uniformed officer swallowed nervously as the assassin passed him by--Tao Pie Pie's moods were capricious and deadly, and only Mistress Lunch and Dr. Soliere were known for sure to be on the assassin's "Do Not Kill Without Colonel Dark's Authorization" list. 

"Sir!" the officer saluted Colonel Dark as he reported. "The videos you requested--the Cell Game broadcast and the reports from the battle with the Space Warriors, sir." 

"Good," responded Colonel Dark as he took the cartridges from his communications officer. "That will be all, Lieutenant Tsukiev." He returned the young officer's salute and turned away to peruse the tapes. 

*      *      *      *

Lieutenant Tsukiev returned to his console and thumbed through the procedures manual. He knew his daily routine, but reviewing it steadied his nerves. Of all the People's Republic agents in the Dark Ribbon Army, only he knew that Colonel Dark was planning to attack the Republic! Treacherous bastard--turning on his own patrons, betraying the Revolution! 

Sweat beaded on his forehead; Dark had to know that the Republic kept a close eye on his operation, but which agents did he know about? If Dark suspected Tsukiev, he would not live out the night; but if Tsukiev did not send warning to his superiors, he would be as much a traitor as Dark--but if he was being watched, his first attempt to send a warning would be his last. The communications officer was far too obvious a suspect if any information leaked. 

At least Tao Pie Pie will be busy drawing up the battle plan, Tsukiev thought feverishly. He won't be sent to kill me any time soon unless I do something that really gets their attention. So.. what warning to send? Right now, I don't know when or where or how they're going to attack, but I can almost certainly get a warning out. But if I wait, I might have a chance to get a look at Pie Pie's battle plan, and give them a good warning... But if I wait, it might be that I'm already known to be an agent, and they're already watching me... and I'll be killed before I can give the warning. 

Tsukiev flipped through the pages of the manual, not reading a word. He took a deep breath, calming himself. Okay, I don't _know_ that they're watching me--if they suspected me, Tao would have killed me right then--he's got to suspect I heard Dark give the order. So he doesn't know that I serve two masters... I'll wait. A warning without information is useless, and I'd rather die accomplishing something. 

*      *      *      *

Pie Pie looked into the training room; his apprentice Mist knelt on the mat, meditating with a drawn sword across her lap. He smiled coldly, and stalked silently across the room toward her, one hand poised to strike. 

He felt the slight breeze as she vanished, dodging almost faster than Pie Pie could see, and felt another breeze as he dodged in turn. The sharp blade flashed past his neck, missing by inches. Pie Pie lashed out with a foot, only to have it deflected by a blocking hand. 

He spun in place and crouched in guard position; Mist faced him, sword also at guard, green eyes glinting. Pie Pie smirked. 

"Better, but not good enough, girl! I attacked you, and you're just waiting for me to finish the job! What have I taught you?" 

"The job's not finished until there's a corpse on the floor and money in the bank," she hissed. Long black braids flew into the air as she leapt and tumbled, coming suddenly at Tao Pie Pie from the side. Again, the sword cut only air as Pie Pie dodged--and suddenly whirled to block her left-hand strike! The sword blow had been a feint-- 

Pie Pie swept out with his foot, catching her off-balance; Mist stumbled, but regained her footing-- 

\--Just as Pie Pie's hand clipped the side of her head. Mist dropped like a stone. 

"That was sloppy," he said to the unconscious girl. Tao Pie Pie waited a few minutes for her to awaken, and repeated himself as soon as she was half-conscious. "That was sloppy. I don't have the time to discipline you properly," he said, kicking her three times very deliberately, once in each thigh and once in the back. Mist gasped, but did not scream, though tears of pain leaked from her eyes. Pie Pie's blows had jammed nerve clusters in her legs and back, paralyzing her with pain. 

Pie Pie smiled coldly. "Clean my quarters again, then stay here and practice until I give you permission to do otherwise." His cyber-eyes whirred as he watched the girl drag herself along the floor, her temporarily cripppled leg muscles useless for walking. "Hurry up; I expect you to be done with your chores by the time I finish." He stalked out, smiling with satisfaction. 

*      *      *      *

"My plans are complete; soon, my dear, you will be the mistress of the ruler of the Northern People's Republic," Jerome Sebastien Dark crooned as he stroked Lunch's blonde hair. Her head rested comfortably on his bare chest as they lay in bed. 

"Mmmph," Lunch replied, green eyes dreamy as she snuggled closer to her lover. "You're so good to me, Jerome. I really should kill you." 

Jerome chuckled, and blew lightly in her ear. "Careful, my dear--you'll ruin your reputation as a heartless bitch." He pulled her gently to him and kissed her. 

She drew back one hand and slapped him. "Never with you, bastard!" Lunch was grinning fiercely, a certain light dancing in her green, green eyes; she returned the kiss with passion, a passion he returned. 

As always, their mutual passion intensified; as always, afterwards, Jerome ran his strong hands over her body, tracing ancient scars. In the privacy of his thoughts, he reaffirmed his resolve to someday find the one who had done this to his beautiful Lunch, find the one who had shattered her mind and scarred her body. Once, Lunch must have been whole, until someone had used her so badly that Lunch had become two: Brunette Lunch, still the innocent, trusting child, and Blonde Lunch, her savage, ruthless, worldly-wise protector. 

She had not been beaten by her former lover, the martial artist Tienshenhan; Dark knew that much. Blonde Lunch had loved him in her way, and only death had parted them. Unfortunate for Tienshenhan; fortunate for Jerome Sebastien Dark. He'd found a lover and a partner, someone he respected and almost trusted--a rare thing in his world. 

Sometimes Brunette Lunch's childlike nature disturbed Jerome more than he could admit--for the child shared the same body as the fierce woman he respected, lusted after and... and he shut off those thoughts abruptly. Yes, he would find the man who had done this to her, and for once, he would not be coldly efficient; he would take his time, and be sloppy, and the man would die screaming after as many hours or days as Colonel Jerome Sebastien Dark of the Dark Ribbon Army could make him last. 

With a cold smile on his lips, Dark finally dropped off to sleep, Lunch curled up beside him. None would dare disturb them. 


	9. Escape!

"Well?" asked Puar anxiously as the little goddesses looked in all directions. 

"There's no one coming," they chorused. 

"Good! Get close to my feet, but not too close..." Puar gritted her teeth, and _changed_ \-- 

CRACK! The strong plexiglass, built to hold two fairy princesses, was not strong enough to hold a grizzly bear. Puar the Bear braced her back against the tiny chamber and split it apart as she grew. 

A guard rushed in, unslinging a carbine as he ran--and skidded to a stop, his arms flailing. He gaped at the great brown bear half-filling the room, too shocked to speak. 

With a growl, Puar the Bear swatted him, flinging the hapless guard across the room. He hit the unpainted cinderblock wall with a thud and slid to the floor, quite unconscious. Puar charged through the door; with a squeal, the two goddesses bounded up and landed in her fur, where they clung for dear life. 

Another guard made the mistake of standing in Puar's way; the bear simply slammed into him with one shoulder and knocked him sprawling, then wheeled and swatted two more who ran up behind her. 

Puar the Bear blinked and looked, turning her big bear head to either side. No one else; just three unconscious guards and the two goddesses. She padded down the corridor, looking this way and that. Unpainted concrete floors, cinderblock walls, bare pipes, electrical conduits and plain grey utility doors marked with stenciled numbers met her eyes. Where to hide? 

"A-ha!" growled the bear as she reached up and hooked her claws into a ventilation grill, prying it loose. Puar the bear rippled and changed, becoming a plump blue and white Persian cat once again. 

"We've got to hide," she squeaked, pointing at the now-open air vent. She floated up to it and peered in. "It looks safe enough." 

The twin kami floated up beside her, carrying the grill. They helped Puar pull the cover back in place behind them, and then the three of them scurried down the dark air duct as angry shouts sounded nearby, and feet pounded up the corridor outside. 

*      *      *      *

"WHAT?? Repeat that!" screamed an incredulous Tao Pie Pie at the cringing soldier. 

"Th-They're gone, sir! The goddesses and the cat have escaped!" the man said, trembling. 

Cold cybernetic eyes focussed on the underling. "What is being done about it?" the assassin snapped, dangerously quiet. 

The grey-uniformed soldier gulped nervously, still holding his salute. "Ah, Lieutenant Grey has formed search parties and is combing that level of the base. It's sealed off; they can't possibly get away. The lieutenant says he should have them any moment." The soldier's voice was hopeful. 

"So... things are well in hand." Tao Pie Pie smiled, a cold, hard, narrow smile. "Now that you've reported to me, you're not really needed, are you?" 

The soldier's eyes widened in confusion. "Well, uh, I'm supposed to report back and join in the sear---- UNHHH!" 

The soldier's eyes widened further as the long knife blade entered his chest just under the breastbone, angled upward and sliced his heart in two before emerging from his back beside the shoulder blade. Tao Pie Pie held him up, watching the surprise and shock in the man's face, savoring the moment as the life left him. Only then did he withdraw the blade, letting the corpse slump to the floor. 

"You, there," Tao Pie Pie said to the now-trembling guard at the door. "Clean up this mess." With that, he turned on his heel and headed for the Command Center. 

*      *      *      *

"Ah-choo!" Puar sneezed; the air ducts were full of dust. 

"Shhhhhhh!" hissed the scared little goddesses. "Ah-choo!" "Ah-choo!" They both sneezed themselves. 

"If we keep sneezing like this, someone will hear us. We have to get out of here," worried Puar. "We have to find Yamucha and Saisei and free them--they could fight all these soldiers!" 

The goddesses disagreed. "We must go outside," they chorused, "where we can see the sun and the stars, and then we will call Mothra to rescue us." 

"We could do both," squeaked Puar. 

The goddesses looked thoughtful, and bent their heads together, whispering. "Very well," they said in that sing-song chorus. "Do you know where to look for them?" 

Puar's face fell. "Uh, no. Do you know which way is outside?" 

The twin kami looked at each other in dismay. "No, we are lost. But..." They whispered together a bit more. "go far enough up and there must be a roof and sky." 

Puar nodded. "That's right! We'll go up, and look in each room as we pass for Yamucha and Saisei." Puar flicked the dust out of her tail and floated down the duct, the little goddesses following. 

*      *      *      *

Tao Pie Pie frowned as he looked over the scene of the escape. He turned to Lieutenant Grey. "Well?" 

"The entire level is sealed off; you and my messenger are the only ones to enter or leave since the escape was detected, sir!" Grey, an average-looking man in his mid-thirties, snapped off a salute. "My search parties are combing Level D room by room, and sealing all corridors that have already been searched. We've already secured the armoury and the main machine shop. It's only a matter of time, sir; we'll flush them out." 

Tao Pie Pie frowned in disgust, and strode a short distance down the corridor to stare at the twisted corner of a ventilation grill. "Did you seal off the air ducts, and are you searching _them_?" 

The officer paled. "N-no, sir. We didn't think that---" 

"You didn't think, period! Do you even know what you are trying to recapture? Two ONE-FOOT-TALL women and a CAT, you fool, AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN THINK OF THE AIR DUCTS??" In the blink of an eye, the knife blade snapped out of Tao Pie Pie's cyberhand and slashed up and across the hapless lieutenant's throat. Red splashed across the wall and floor as he collapsed, gurgling his last breath through his own blood. 

"There is no place for idiocy in the Dark Ribbon Army," Tao Pie Pie hissed. He turned to the now-pale sergeant who had just reported. "You've just been promoted. Seal the ducts, and prepare to fumigate this level. The twins and that cat will be 'neutralized' when they are dead." 

*      *      *      *

When Tao Pie Pie returned to his quarters many levels above, he was still scowling. His scowl turned to a mere frown as he regarded young Mist, who was laboriously crawling across the floor and mopping it with a damp rag. 

"I'll have to use you," Pie Pie said as he reached down and lightly touched the three nerve clusters. Mist almost collapsed in relief as the pain faded away, and she could unknot her cramped legs. 

"Get into your uniform and take over from those idiots on Level D. They've managed to let the twin kami and that damn cat escape, and they'll never find them in the garages without help; they haven't a brain among them. I don't have time for this, or I'd do it myself; you might be of some trivial use here," Pie Pie sneered. 

Mist got to her feet and bowed low. "Yes, master. It shall be as you command." 

"Of course it will." Tao Pie Pie nodded and entered his office; he had a battle plan to design, and the sooner Dark had it, the better. 

*      *      *      *

It wasn't until they reached the junction of the vertical air shaft and the ducts for the next level that Puar and the twin goddesses again disagreed. They debated politely, but persistantly; the goddesses wanted to follow the shaft all the way up, and Puar wanted to check the rooms on each level. 

"We agreed to move upward toward roof and sky, and check any rooms on the way," noted the goddesses. "Only rooms that this shaft opens on are 'on the way'." 

Puar cried in dismay, "But there are no rooms off the shaft; only the horizontal ducts go to the rooms! I'll never find Yamucha and Saisei!" 

"Please!" the tiny twins begged. "We must see the sky, and call Mothra. After that, we will help you find your friends, we promise!" 

"Oh, all right," Puar said. She couldn't help looking wistfully down the air duct as they climbed, though. 

It wasn't long before they floated up to the roof ventilator; Puar dislodged it with a brief change of form, and they were out. 

"Oh!" The twins said as they looked out across the hilly island. They turned, this way and that, looked at the sun, and finally turned to the northeast. Holding hands, the tiny goddesses began to sing. 

*      *      *      *

Two floors down from Soliere's lab, Haze shoved Saisei into a small cell and started to close the barred door. He stopped abruptly, an evil smile crossing his normally surly face. 

"Hey, I bet the doc has the harness rigged so you can't escape or fight back, don't he?" The smile was turning to a wicked grin. "Bet you can't even fight back against a one-armed man," Haze taunted as Saisei glanced involuntarily at Haze's broken arm in its sling. 

Uh-oh, thought Saisei. This will be bad-- 

Haze's one good arm snapped forward, and Saisei reflexively tried to block it--and screamed. His arm suddenly felt like it had been crushed to pulp and powder as its pain nerves triggered. 

Haze punched him in the solar plexis, smirking as Saisei hunched over double. "Hey, I was right! Looks like it's payback time, pretty boy!" 

Saisei collapsed as Haze tripped him, and then kicked him hard between the legs. The pain doubled him up, retching-- 

Haze laughed. "Oh, this is too easy!" He brutally stomped on Saisei's outspread left hand, grinding the bones under his bootheel, and then kicked him in the stomach. He laughed again at Saisei's groans, and waited-- 

As soon as Saisei started to recover, Haze kicked him in the groin again, licking his lips as the young man held himself and groaned in pain. "I want to hear you scream like a girl again," Haze snarled. "And I know how to make you cry like a baby!" 

Haze reached down and grabbed the golden, many-branched metal tiara circling Saisei's head and gave it a good shake. 

Saisei screamed, a high-pitched sound like that of a woman--or a man tortured to death. The screaming went on and on, and Saisei began to convulse, flecks of foam dotting his lips. Haze stepped back, appalled as the young man's back arched, lifting him off the floor except for his head and heels. Saisei's eyes stared up, unfocussed, at nothing; blood trickled out of his mouth--and the screaming never stopped. 

Haze backed quickly out of the cell and slammed the door; the doctor had ordered him to keep this subject in good health, and if anyone knew Haze was responsible for... whatever was happening to the kid, he'd be lucky to be just taken out and shot. More likely, he'd be the doc's next experiment! If he left quickly, by the time someone checked on the kid, they'd probably figure he'd triggered the harness himself. Haze fled the cell block, forgetting in his haste to lock the cell block door. 

*      *      *      *

There are ways the brain can shut out physical pain, separate mind and body when the agony becomes too great to endure. Unfortunately for Saisei, the source of his all-consuming agony was within his brain; he could not shut it out, he could not deny it. Not even madness could free him from his torment; he could only endure it, or die--and no mortal brain could endure such unending agony. 

The control harness was not intended to kill its subject, merely lash its pain centers so severely that the subject would never, ever think of tampering with the harness again--so that the subject would do anything, would commit the most unspeakable atrocities, would permit the most obscene degradation, _anything_ at all rather than permit the harness to be touched. 

Unfortunately Doctor Soliere had been in a hurry, and had forgotten to reset the intensity of the punishment program, nor had he changed the duration, originally intended for the dull nervous systems of giant reptilian monsters. It did, however, have one failsafe built-in. 

The continual stimulation of the pain centers of Saisei's brain wreaked havoc with his neurochemistry--as the nerves fired continuously, with no chance to rest, the supply of neurotransmitters became exhausted, and the young man's brain simply shut down. 

The neural sensors in the control harness detected the cessation of neural activity and triggered the failsafe, aborting the punishment program... too late. Saisei flatlined; without brain function, his breathing stopped. His heart staggered on for only a few moments longer. 

Saisei was dead. 


	10. Flatlined Eightfold

Saisei's body relaxed; the agonized rictus contorting his face faded slowly into final peace. 

_"No, Habotan Saisei, not yet is your life done; not yet are you released from the world of pain. Your greatest tasks still remain."_

An intangible presence surrounded Saisei; ghostly fingers caressed battered nerves, poked here, prodded there, teasing, stroking, finally jolting dying neurons back to life. A single breath, no more than a sigh; the fingers withdrew, then returned to tickle a cluster of nerves deep in Saisei's heart. The pacemaker neurons spasmed, kicking other nerves awake in sequence across the cardiac muscle; Saisei's heart beat again. Another breath, then another and another. 

*      *      *      *

Saisei awoke abruptly; he lay on his back on the cold concrete floor, choking on his own blood. He rolled over, gagging and hacking up the blood that filled his throat. His tongue throbbed painfully--in his convulsions, Saisei had bitten through the tip of his tongue, and it bled profusely. The blood joined the pool of bile vomited up during Haze's beating; Saisei stared blankly at it for a moment, then drew his hands under him, raising himself on his hands. He collapsed as pain lanced through his broken hand, then raised himself again, careful of the shattered bones. 

Where was he? What had happened? Oh yes--he'd failed to clear Tsaba in the allotted time, and the king had killed him for it-- 

No! That wasn't right! He was Habotan, a poor fisherman's son from an insignificant village, and he had no king, certainly not that auburn-crested warlord.... 

It was all Saisei could do to just hold himself up on his hands and knees, shuddering with exhaustion. His entire body ached like he'd been beaten with bamboo staves; his bruised groin throbbed with pain from Haze's brutal kicks. Shattered bones throbbed and ached in his hand, and his injured tongue felt swollen to twice its normal size. 

It felt wonderful. Those were the familiar pains of battle, not that unbearable agony that only the damned were meant to know. He slowly drew himself to a sitting position, wincing with every move. For a time, Saisei sat still, taking slow, deep breaths. He felt oddly light-headed; what had happened? 

_"...Furthermore, if you were to try to remove the harness... well, let's just say that it would be a bad idea," said the doctor...._

Haze had deliberately triggered the harness. Then came the pain, that unimaginable torment, then--what? Saisei's memory just wasn't there. He couldn't remember what happened between the start of the pain and waking up on the floor--but he could remember other things, people he'd never met, places he'd never been, a sky he'd never seen--things that had no place in the life he knew. 

"This... will not do." Saisei told himself. "This foul device has done something to my brain--it has to go, now! But how to remove it? To touch it is to die of pain." A wry smile spread across his face. "Indeed, I must put an end to suffering--but do the Four Noble Truths apply to _this_?? Yet suffering is suffering, whether from my own folly or this torture device." 

Saisei arranged himself for meditation, sitting up straight, his hands resting in his lap, relaxed, palms up and fingers and thumbs curled, touching. 

_Life is filled with suffering._

And this particular suffering is absolute and pure. 

_Suffering is caused by desire for transient things that pass away._

Fear is suffering anticipated. Pain is the fear of the body of its own destruction--but the body is transient, and will pass away. Every injury affirms the transience of the flesh, and so I feel pain. Pain exists because I foolishly desire that the impermanent be permanent. 

_To be rid of suffering, rid yourself of the desire for transient things._

The body cries against its own mortality, but I am not my body. It is impermanent; it will die and be no more. The soul endures. Only the soul... 

_A vision, but not of the life he knew: his own face--not Saisei's face, but still his face--looking up, the knowledge of sudden death revealed in his eyes, followed by a blast of searing white light that burnt away skin and muscle and bone, vaporized into drifting motes of ash in less time than it takes to draw a last breath._

Even death is transient! The soul endures, and death gives way to life in its own cycle. Why do I suffer this pain beyond all other pain? I was not even injured, yet--! Pain without injury is not suffering, but suffering anticipated; it is fear of that which is not. Is this pain an illusion? 

_He looked down on his own body in its last convulsions as his tormented brain finally ceased working altogether, and pain faded into peaceful death...._

No. It is no less and no more real than my own body. My body is bound by pain fed directly into my brain somehow. That torturer Soliere spoke of microvoltage and current and electrodes; it is electrical--which means a power source somewhere! Without power.... yes. Cut the power, rob the torturer of his instruments. But how to do it? I must end the pain to break the control harness so that I may end the pain--- aaaaggghh! 

Saisei curled his one good hand into a fist. I will _not_ give up! There is a way, and if there is not a way, I will _make_ a Way! 

_To rid yourself of the desire for transient things, follow the eight-fold path of wisdom and righteousness and understanding._

Center. 

_Of righteousness: Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. Of wisdom: Right Understanding..._

No, I am not bound; I only suffer depending on what I do. To move quickly is to be given pain in that limb which moves hastily. To touch forcefully the harness itself is to die. 

Yamucha is also captive and tormented by Soliere and this evil device. I do not know what has become of Puar. What is past, is past, what is, is--I cannot change it by fear or worry. 

Center. 

_...and Right Intention_

Yamucha.... 

A wordless, profound respect welled up and spread through Saisei's heart, like cool spring water from the bottom of a sun-warmed lake. 

I knew techniques before, but nothing more. They were mechanical, lifeless things; Yamucha showed me the heart and life of a true warrior and master. He welcomed me, he taught me, he has been brother and father and friend to me. I owe him... much, and grudge it not at all. 

Yamucha, and Puar. Saisei smiled quietly to himself. How did Yamucha find her? A creature of magic and kindness; Yamucha is very lucky to know her, and so am I. She is my friend. 

They need my help. 

_Of understanding: Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration,_

I could not help my people then. 

His thoughts shifted to the village of his birth, and what happened to it... the shift was jagged and grating, like splintered ends of bone grinding together. An eddy of grief and anger and bitter hate for those who had destroyed his home tore through him. Saisei raised his one good fist-- 

No. Be still! Not again! He lowered his fist, opened his hand. 

I am so far from Enlightenment. I still hate them; I still want to kill them. I want to break their bodies with my bare hands, I want to hear their screams as they die, screaming as my parents and my uncle and my cousins screamed. 

If I do, will I forget what was done to me? No! Will my parents, or the rest of the village be restored to life? No! Will my sister return? No! Cruelty does not undo cruelty. 

They took everything from me! Ayomara, my sister! Tousan! Okaasan! I love you still, and always will. They hurt me, and they have never paid for it! Saisei clenched his one good hand into a fist again; I am a child still. 

Center. 

Cruelty does not undo cruelty. What payment can restore the dead and return my childhood to me? None at all. 

What if the soldiers had never come? Would mother have lived forever? No! Would father? No! Would Ayomara have stayed at home, a maiden girl until I was old and grey? No! Who would I have hated when age or the sea took them? Would I have sworn revenge against the sea, or cursed Time? No. Only a fool rails against the nature of the world. What is, is. 

Would I have grieved any less? No. But I would not have hated. I would not have been a child robbed of all that mattered. They hurt me, and I have never healed. The murderers have prospered; the innocent are despised and forgotten. There has been no _justice_. 

There will be. I will make sure of it. 

A cold certainty filled Saisei; implacable determination rose out of the hidden depths of his soul. The power of it terrified him. 

Who am I to know this? I am no great noble to sit in judgement of criminals in my fief, nor am I a wandering hero, to punish evil wherever I find it-- 

_He who was himself, yet not Saisei, sat upon the high chair at one end of the low-ceilinged, dark hall. The smoke of a thousand years darkened the ancient stone walls; before him stood a soldier in chains. The man trembled, his tail wrapped around his waist and fluffed out with fear to twice its normal size. Opposite him stood the girl who was wronged, and her family; hate and humiliation warred in her face, while fierce satisfaction and hate combined in her father's blunt, scarred face as he stared at the soldier. It was the last case left to judge, and guilt was clear; his judgement would be swift and equally clear..._

No! I was born Chou Habotan, in a small fishing village; I am not this great noble who offended his king--not in this life! I am Habotan Saisei, Habotan reborn, and I do not have the right of judgement! I only have the right of vengeance, for my self and family! 

He himself answered: So, too, will there be justice; what is vengeance, if not a quest for personal justice? I have the right to act because I have the obligation to act; I have the obligation, because every man, every person, has the obligation to see justice done. 

There will be justice, and only justice. I cannot cherish my hatred anymore; there is no place for it on my path. A strange confidence rose in Saisei and strengthened him, for he understood. 

Of course. The child I was never believed he could defeat the beasts that took everything from him, and so I have cherished my hate; it shielded me from despair. 

_...and Right Effort_

It is time. I must find and rescue Puar, free Yamucha from Soliere's tortures, and stop whatever his wicked plans are. And I will destroy the Dark Ribbon, not for hatred and anger, no, not any more--but because they have done evil, they do evil, they would do more evil, _and that must end!_

"So shall it be," Saisei said as he opened his eyes and looked at his prison with fresh eyes. 

A golden presence washed over him, and Saisei smiled ever so slightly; he knew the touch of that good spirit. He had seen her once, when he was a child near death from wounds and fever after the Dark Ribbon soldiers slaughtered his village. She was a strange, wild spirit, with long spiky hair to her knees, wide, compassionate eyes, and a thin furry brown tail lashing behind her. 

"You kept me alive," Saisei stated quietly to the unseen presence. "When I was a child, and now..." He tilted his chin up slightly, smiling as he rose to his feet. "As you say; I have tasks ahead." 

Saisei began slowly, stepping through the well-known katas as if he were a novice practicing them for the first time. He repeated them, faster, and then faster again, until the pain stabbed him. Calmly, he worked deliberately through each strike, each block, each step, feeling the lash of the control harness as it activated the pain nerves in the offending limb each time. Again and again, until the pain became part of the kata, known and accepted. 

"Now." Ki flared, and one foot lashed out with a vicious kick, precisely aimed-- 

BAAM! The cell door burst open, its lock shattered and bent. Saisei darted down the cellblock corridor, looking this way and that; clear. He ran, looking for a room with the one thing he needed: a mirror. 

*      *      *      *

Two hallways, five rooms and four guards later, Saisei found what he needed: the men's room--and a mirror. He turned his head this way and that, staring at the foul device. 

In appearance it resembled a very fanciful golden tiara, with many antler-like branches curling up and down from the main band to grip his skull firmly. Under some of those branches were the electrodes that controlled his brain, Saisei knew. Somewhere in the tiara was the power source for the electrodes--nothing big; the thing used less power than a digital watch for all its terrible effect. 

Saisei closed his eyes, feeling the flow of his ki, his center, his life, understanding the way it had been distorted by the device penetrating his brain.?Yes; he knew where the electrodes had to be. He opened his eyes again. 

He would only get one blow, and that blow had to disable the power supply, or sever the electrodes from their controller, without shattering Saisei's own skull. One blow... and if it failed, Saisei would die in ultimate agony. This time, he sensed, there would be no reprieve. 

One blow... Saisei raised his ki and focussed it, touching the fingers of one hand to the fingers of another. Pain from broken bones lanced through one hand; Saisei ignored it. He took a deep breath, raised his hands high, slowly exhaled-- 

Both hands flashed down toward his face as he struck. 


	11. Unharnessed

Saisei woke on the floor of the men's room, muscles still twitching. Lying around him were golden shards of metal. After a few seconds to collect his breath and let his wildly racing heart calm, he pulled himself to his feet and stared at his reflection in the mirror. 

I've looked better, Saisei thought wryly. Blood streaked his face and chin; his hair was matted into spikes by dried blood and less pleasant substances, and shards of golden metal still clung to his head. He hadn't removed the electrodes--not in one blow, but he'd severed them from their power supply and controller. He turned on the water in one of the sinks and began to rinse his face, careful of his injured hand. 

Saisei noted that the men's room in this den of murderers was equipped with a regulation first aid kit. He shook his head; why would men who thought nothing of butchering innocents worry about fulfilling the minutiae of worker safety laws? Truly, people were strange. 

Saisei quickly opened the kit and somewhat awkwardly taped and wrapped his broken hand, always keeping aware of sounds outside, and of two large kis, one pacing far above, one running back and forth somewhere below him. 

Booted feet pounded down the hall outside; muffled shouts and curses rang out. Time to move. Saisei opened the men's room door and stepped briskly into the hall, a few feet behind the six soldiers who were peering at their fallen comrades behind the guardpost. One noticed, and gaped at Saisei-- 

Saisei's foot caught him right in mid-gape, sending the soldier careening into his mates with a broken jaw. The flurry of follow-up blows put down the rest of the small squad. Large, armed soldiers that they were, still they were no match for Yamucha's student. 

Saisei paused only to snatch up one of their radios, and hurried down the corridor, toward Doctor Soliere's lab and Yamucha. 

*      *      *      *

"You've lost contact with _both_ guard squads on Level F? Indeed. No sign of the prisoners on Level D? Yes, cover F; whatever is happening there cannot be allowed to interfere with Soliere. Over" 

Tao Pie Pie switched the intercom to another circuit. "Soliere? Pie Pie here. Is the other subject ready?" Pie Pie waited, frowning. "Well? Yes or no?" Pie Pie frowned even more. "What do you mean, it isn't that simple? Never mind, I am coming; you can explain it to me in person!" he snapped in frustration, shutting off the intercom with a vicious jerk of the switch. 

*      *      *      *

Lieutenant Tsukiev looked both ways hurriedly; no one was watching as he crept into the command center conference room. He slipped inside and closed the door behind him. Tsukiev took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly. Yes! There it was, right in the middle of the huge conference table--The Plan. Tao Pie Pie had no chance to present it to Colonel Dark before events dragged him to the lower levels of the base, so he had left it here for later. 

Tsukiev moved quickly to the table and picked up the slender folder with trembling hands. It would only take a few moments to copy the contents... 

Five very long minutes later, Tsukiev replaced the folder, sighing with relief. No one had come along looking for it while it was gone, no one had caught him in the copy room with it; he was in the clear. As he set the folder down, Tsukiev failed to notice the long black hair that he'd dislodged when he picked it up. 

*      *      *      *

A song sweet as a nightingale's washed over Puar, and at long last, came to its end. 

"Mothra is coming!" The twin goddesses chorused, turning to Puar. 

Puar blinked, half-dazzled by the sun and the memory of their song. She started to wash herself and gather her wits. "Yamucha! We need to go find Yamucha and Saisei now!" 

The twins nodded. "It will take some time for Mothra to get here, and we promised we would help." 

Puar floated back down the yawning dark shaft, followed by the two kami. The magical cat was of a mind to go all the way back down to where they'd been imprisoned, in the hope that Yamucha was held somewhere nearby. The shuttered fan at the bottom changed her mind for her. 

"They've closed off the level we were on!" Puar exclaimed. "They must have figured out we were in the air ducts!" She rose back to the junction where the ducts branched off on the next level and peered down several, wondering which way they should go. 

Again, Puar's mind was made up for her when the screaming started. It was the ugly sound of torture, of pain so great that its victim had been stripped of all pride and dignity and resistance, reduced to a wordless howl of surrender. 

All hesitancy vanished; Puar darted down the narrow duct toward the horrid sound. 

*      *      *      *

The sound of Yamucha's tortured screams lent wings to Saisei's feet; he all but flew up the last stretch of corridor. The two guards in front of the door had barely begun to reach for their weapons when Saisei hit them. 

The two bodies were still slumping to the floor when Saisei kicked the door off its hinges and crashed through. In the laboratory beyond, Doctor Soliere looked up from the machines cradling Yamucha, and stared blankly at the intruder, completely surprised. 

"What? How can you--?" The slight, brown-haired man gaped at Saisei in astonishment. "Wh-what happened to your harness?" 

Saisei bounded across the room like a jungle cat and grabbed Soliere by the front of his lab coat with one good hand. "I removed it," the young fighter hissed, raising the other, bandaged hand menacingly, "--and you will remove your torture machines from Yamucha _now_ , or I will test _your_ pain centers the old-fashioned way!" 

"Torture machines?? But they're not--" the callous doctor sputtered. Saisei shook him viciously. "Well, I suppose you might see them that way," Soliere added weakly, "but they're actually neural interface devices, and--" 

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU CALL THEM, GET THEM OFF OF YAMUCHA!" 

Yamucha's eyes flickered open and rolled, looking at nothing in particular. Sweat and tears ran down his face; his hair was sodden. He was breathing hard, as if he'd run a marathon. Suddenly his eyes seemed to focus; he stared at Saisei and the doctor. Yamucha licked his dry lips, and opened his mouth to speak--but what came out was barely a whisper. 

"Saisei... Get out of here before--" 

Saisei interrupted. "--before the bastard gets his hands on me? Too late, I've already had a session with this torturer." He shook Soliere again. "Get on with it, Doctor!" 

Soliere gulped nervously. "It-it isn't that easy. I mean, I can disconnect the electrodes easily enough, but removing the microthin wires from his brain isn't trivial... Actually, I've never done it before." 

"Start disconnecting." Saisei's jaw was set, his mouth was a thin, hard line of fury. 

"Y-yes," stammered the doctor, as he reached across the neural stimulator's console and began to unclip leads. 

"No." A cold voice announced from behind Saisei. Saisei looked around. Tao Pie Pie stood in the wrecked doorway. Saisei's eyes narrowed at the sight of the lean figure with the machine eyes--and widened as he sensed the assassin's rising ki. 

"You!" snarled Saisei. He turned and shoved the hesitant doctor hard, sending him skidding across the floor, far from Yamucha, then dodged to one side as Tao Pie Pie leaped across the room, landing with a distinctive, bird-like poise. 

Not good--he is a master of the Crane School, Saisei thought, as he blocked a knife-hand strike aimed at his throat. My reflexes are still off because of the control harness, and I can't focus my ki too well, either. 

Again and again he blocked or dodged Tao Pie Pie's strikes. Saisei's breath came in heavy gasps; he still hadn't recovered fully from his ordeal with the harness. Pie Pie feinted, and struck at Saisei's stomach-- 

Saisei blocked the striking hand, then-- 

SHICK! The hand became a knife blade, lancing out to slash Saisei across the stomach. He dodged, but not fast enough; a line of red parted his shirt. 

Tao Pie Pie smirked triumphantly and started to say something-- 

Saisei kicked him in the face, hard. The surprised assassin staggered back, and Saisei slammed his hand down hard, shattering the last of the machinery still holding Yamucha. As Pie Pie regained his footing, the younger fighter pivoted off the console and caught the assassin under the ribs with a flying kick. Tao Pie Pie went flying. 

Saisei grabbed Yamucha and bolted for the opposite door; as Pie Pie again regained his footing and charged after him, Saisei dropped Yamucha and slammed the steel security door in his face. A twist of the latch, and it locked. Without a pause, Saisei tossed Yamucha back over his shoulder and ran down the corridor, looking for a way out. 

As he round a corner, he heard behind him a loud cry: "DODON-PA!" 

BOOM! Something exploded behind him, and Saisei flung open the nearest door and dove inside without looking to see what it was. 


	12. Battle Plans

Tao Pie Pie searched the corridor briefly with his eyes. Damn! The prisoner was nowhere in sight, and Pie Pie could not sense his presence. He hesitated for a moment; should he pursue the escapee, or give Soliere his instructions? 

The assassin frowned and turned back. He had better things to do than play hide-and-seek; let Mist and Haze's thugs run the prisoners to ground, _then_ he would deal with them. For now, he had his orders: prepare the battle plan and get Soliere started on the monsters. 

What went wrong? Pie Pie had the youth right where he wanted him--on the edge of desperation, starting to realize that Tao Pie Pie was toying with him, and then the assassin had struck the unexpected blow, wounding the boy just when he thought he had safely blocked the deadly strike. The youth should have hesitated as he realized the awful truth, he should have been hit by despair-- _opening!_

Instead, the boy ignored the wound like it was nothing, and had actually _struck_ Tao Pie Pie in the moment that should have been Pie Pie's victory! And then, he added insult to injury by doing it again! It was almost as if the boy fought _better_ after taking that painful slash across his belly. Madness! 

*      *      *      *

Puar and the twin kami pressed their noses up against the ventilator grill, trying to see out the narrow slits. 

"...prepare Gojira, Barugon and Rodan for their mission. They must be ready by six tonight!" 

Puar gasped and quickly covered her mouth with a forepaw. "Oh, no!" 

"What is it?" whispered the little goddesses. 

Puar whimpered. "That's Tao Pie Pie--he's strong and very evil. I thought he was dead; Goku beat him a long time ago. And... I don't see Yamucha anywhere!" 

"But what are they doing now?" wondered the twins as they peered through the ventilator grill. 

Tao Pie Pie was issuing orders over the phone. "Haze! Get one of your squads down here and find the prisoners. Do not--I repeat, _do not_ \--try to capture Yamucha or the other one yourself; tell me or Mist when you've found them.... No, do not shoot to kill--I will deal with them myself." 

Soliere frowned as he looked around the lab. "I suppose I might as well prep the monsters--my latest subjects have escaped." He shook his head. "I don't understand how he got loose; the harness was working when he left the lab," he said petulantly. 

"Left the lab?" Pie Pie turned abruptly, back toward the doctor. 

"Yes--all these changes in plans, hurry this timetable up, stop that, do this instead--Jerome wanted to use Yamucha in his new plan, so I had to switch to working on him, instead of the young man." The brown-haired doctor sniffed. "I fitted him with a restraint harness and had him transferred to a cell. He should not have been able to do anything." 

Tao Pie Pie flexed his cybernetic hand. "That young man does quite a few things he should not be able to do," he said thoughtfully. "Never mind, Soliere--just have the monsters ready to attack the Northern Republic capital by this evening." With that, Pie Pie turned abruptly on his heel and left. 

Puar and the twin kami looked at each other with wide eyes. "Yamucha's escaped!" the cat exclaimed at last. 

"They're using our monsters!" the goddesses said in dismay. "We must stop them!" 

Puar shivered. "I'm not strong enough to stop Tao Pie Pie--we have to find Yamucha!" 

*      *      *      *

Tao Pie Pie was not happy. First, Dark's mercenary thugs had allowed Soliere's two experimental subjects to escape, along with the Kyojin-shima kami and Yamucha's talking cat. The talking cat was trivial, but the twin kami and Yamucha himself could cause trouble--especially with the new battle plan. They had to be recaptured or neutralised. Second, Colonel Dark and Mistress Lunch were "indisposed" and absolutely not to be disturbed until further notice, which meant that the new battle plan could not be presented or acted on yet. Finally, he, Tao Pie Pie had actually _failed_ to kill a target, and worse, had been struck himself! Not much more than his dignity had been injured, but that was enough. 

Tao Pie Pie frowned to himself as he climbed the stairs to Level X. Furthermore, what was Soliere's problem with the monsters? All previous tests had shown them to be completely under control, even that oversize shrimp; why was Soliere waffling now and babbling about re-calibrating for unexpected brainwave variants? As Tao Pie Pie understood it, Soliere was using technology originally developed by Dr. Wheelo for controlling his android monsters. It seemed to work just as well on natural monsters. 

Unfortunately, Colonel Dark's scavengers hadn't managed to recover Wheelo's android creation technology as well--building perfectly loyal monsters to order would have been far more effective than harnessing the unruly beasts as they could find them. The ice-bound base had been almost completely destroyed in some catastrophe just a few years before Dr. Gero was killed and _his_ lab destroyed--costing the Dark Ribbon Army its most powerful ally. 

Tao Pie Pie shrugged. Or so Colonel Dark thought; Tao Pie Pie was more sanguine. Without obedient android monsters, the Colonel had far more paying work for the best assassin in the world--enough to keep Tao Pie Pie on a very high retainer with lucrative bonuses. In any case, Gero had become a very chancy ally in recent years, increasingly reclusive and obsessed with his own private projects--and more paranoid than ever. Tao Pie Pie's own paranoia (which he thought of as reasonable caution) had kept him from letting Dr. Gero "improve" the cybernetic prosthetics that the doctor had originally built for him. Gero's obsession with control of his creations had worried Tao Pie Pie; what if Gero had decided that the assassin was one of his "creations"? 

The appearance of Cell a few years ago had vindicated Tao Pie Pie's caution; Dr. Gero had gone from obsessive to completely insane. Tao Pie Pie was very glad that he had not let Dr. Gero "improve" things wired directly to his brain. The assassin doubted that he would have appreciated the "improvements". 

Tao Pie Pie paused with his hand on the conference room door. It really was quite ironic that Gero's own reclusive paranoia and obsessive pride had kept him from accepting Colonel Dark's offer of a technology exchange. Control of his creations had always been a sore point with Gero, and if he'd had Wheelo's controller... The assassin smiled coldly to himself, and pushed open the door. 

As he reached for the battle plan, as a matter of habit Tao Pie Pie glanced at the single hair he'd laid across it. 

It was gone. 

*      *      *      *

Lieutenant Tsukiev hunched over the communications console, swearing under his breath. Something in the air, static, bad weather or the aura of one of Colonel Dark's monsters was interfering with the radio; the normally error-free channel was noisy and slow just when Tsukiev needed it to be fast and efficient. Finally, after many retries, he managed to make the connection. He leaned back with a sigh; the encrypted transmission was on its way to the Ministry of Intelligence. Nothing could stop it now. 

"You're at work early," Tao Pie Pie commented dryly from behind him. 

Tsukiev froze for an instant, then turned, forcing a smile and a nod. "Yes, there were some routine matters I'd forgotten, and I wanted to get them taken care of." 

"Routine matters?" The cyborg frowned slightly, and one mechanical eye whirred as it shifted focus, looking at the table beside the communications console. 

Tsukiev went very cold inside as he turned to look, knowing what he'd see already. The folder--he'd forgotten to hide the battle plan folder! 

"I can expla--" 

The knife blade caught him right under the breastbone, plunging down and to one side. Tsukiev screamed thinly as Tao Pie Pie worked the blade back and forth, slicing the great arteries in his liver. The assassin pulled his knife hand free with a jerk as blood welled out of the wounds to soak the young man's uniform and chair. Tsukiev's still-twitching body slid off the chair onto the floor, a red pool spreading around him as Tao Pie Pie smirked. The assassin watched intently until he heard Tsukiev's last breath, then glanced at the settings on the communications console. With a curse he whirled and ran for Colonel Dark's private quarters. 

Moments later, he pounded on the locked door--no answer. "Damn!" The assassin cursed to himself. Colonel Dark would not be happy if Tao Pie Pie broke down the door; he would be even less happy if the entire People's Revolutionary Army descended on their heads without warning. 

Just as the assassin was finally about to kick the door in, it was flung open from inside. Jerome Sebastien Dark stood half-dressed in the doorway, scowling angrily. One hand was clenched at his side, a dim glow shining between the fingers. Behind Dark, a negligee-clad, blonde Lunch peered over his shoulder. 

"And your very good reason for disturbing me is...?" Colonel Dark asked in a tight voice, every word carefully enunciated in an aristocratic British accent. 

Tao Pie Pie bowed, acknowledging his employer's fury. "You have been betrayed, Colonel. One of your watch officers was a spy; he sent the entire battle plan to his masters in the People's Republic. I caught him at it and dealt with him but moments ago. That's 10 million zenni," the assassin added. 

Colonel Dark's eyes narrowed and he nodded in acknowledgement. The glow between his fingers went out abruptly. "So.. they know we have turned against them. Let me see this plan," he said, extending a hand. 

Tao Pie Pie bowed and handed the folder to Colonel Dark, who perused it briefly. 

"The plan is sound," the leader of the Dark Ribbon said. "Do not wait for Soliere's new subjects; execute it immediately." 

Tao Pie Pie smiled coldly. "They will not expect that, Colonel." Pie Pie bowed and retreated, intent on his new assignment. 

"Jerome?" Lunch asked, an odd, almost worried look in her bright green eyes. "Exactly what kind of experiments was Doctor Soliere doing with Yamucha?" 

"I believe he's adapting the control harness to work on a human. Don't worry about it; when he's done, Yamucha will be perfectly healthy and completely under our control," Colonel Dark said smoothly. "Now, my dear, we have work to do." 


	13. Truth Hurts

Saisei plunged through the door and into a large chamber filled with cables, consoles and electrical parts--some kind of laboratory. For the moment, he and Yamucha were the only occupants. He ran across the room, weaving between stacks of transformers, looking for another way out-- 

\--the door exploded behind him! 

"Crud!" Still carrying Yamucha, Saisei leaped on top of one of the transformers. There! That set of double doors had to go somewhere! He jumped down and dashed toward the doors, not slowing to glance behind him. 

Saisei hit the door with a flying kick, shattering the bolt and flattening the two guards that stood behind the doors. He leaped over the sprawled guards and through another set of double doors just behind them--only to momentarily lose his footing as the floor fell away ahead of him. A flight of stairs! 

He landed heavily two steps down, regained his balance, and ran down the stairs. He ignored the many landings, passing them by in favor of the bottom of the maze. Two more guards turned around to gape at him as he ran through the doors at the bottom; Saisei knocked them sprawling and ran on. 

His feet pounded on the bare concrete floor as he turned down a side corridor. Saisei skidded to a halt in front of a plain grey door with 'B-37 Garage' stenciled on it. Shifting the unconscious Yamucha on his shoulders, Saisei opened the door just wide enough to look in. 

He saw a large garage filled with armored cars and swarming with soldiers; no escape that way. Behind him, someone shouted; Saisei glanced back. Several soldiers filled the intersection he'd just left. Damn! 

He ran on; no shelter here, nothing but unpainted cinderblock walls and naked pipes and conduits above. He passed a door to 'B-38 Garage', and kept going; he could hear the voices of soldiers and rumble of engines behind it. 

The corridor ended in another grey door; this one had a red placard: 'A-1 Physical Plant'; in smaller letters below it said 'Authorized Personnel Only!' It was locked. 

Saisei glanced back; soldiers were running down the hall toward him. Damn! All he needed was a chance to rest and let Yamucha recover. Once again, he smashed a door with a single vicious kick, then charged through it--and nearly fell down another flight of stairs. 

He ran down the stairs and into a maze of pipes and tanks, finally slowing down as he climbed the metal ladder to a dusty, unused maintenance catwalk. He listened intently; there were no sounds of pursuit close by. He gently laid the semi-conscious Yamucha down and sat down beside him, gasping for breath. 

Damn, damn, damn! Saisei cursed silently; things were happening too fast. He tore his shirt into strips and bound up the wound across his abdomen; after that, he flexed and worked his muscles. 

I trained myself too well to work with the pain from the control harness, and now that the pain is gone, my reflexes are all wrong, he thought. I was losing to that cursed assassin until he hurt me--then everything worked right for a moment. Saisei leaned back against a stanchion, closing his eyes for a moment's rest... 

A groan from Yamucha woke Saisei. He sat up suddenly, gritting his teeth at the pain from his stiff muscles and wounds. I should not have slept! How long have we been laying here while they searched for us? Saisei thought as he wiped caked blood and dirt away from his eyes, and then looked at his sensei. 

"Yamucha-sensei?" 

"I've felt better," the older warrior said weakly. He sat up slowly, looking himself over carefully. "I'm not hurt!" Yamucha was incredulous. 

"No," Saisei snarled. "The doctor's machines make you _feel_ pain without any injury." He spat over the side of the narrow catwalk. "Even the most skilled of torturers cannot go too far or too long, or they kill their victim--which ends the pain. Soliere's device.... I felt like I was being burned alive or torn apart, again and again and again. Had it been real, I would have only endured it once, for a short time." 

Yamucha shuddered involuntarily. "Yeah. I thought I was in Hell." 

Saisei got to his feet and stretched, then began running through the stationary katas. "Yamucha-sensei, I am not sure what to do next. We are somewhere in their base, and I think it is the one on my island, because one of the powerful ones that I sensed there is here--I faced him in the lab. I do not know what he is called, but he is half-machine, and a master of the Crane School. I also recognized one of their sergeants, the man called Haze; he was one of those who attacked my village." He was also, Saisei thought, the man who murdered my parents and machine-gunned me. 

"Haze?" Yamucha started. "He was with Lunch in the bar. What happened there, anyway? We had them beaten, and then... I don't remember a thing." 

"Friend Yamucha, I think your 'friend' Lunch betrayed you," Saisei said reluctantly. "We were drugged. They wanted us for something--whatever it was the doctor was experimenting with." 

"They wanted _me_ for something!" Yamucha growled. "I don't like being tied down on an operating table and 'experimented' on!" His expression turned suddenly thoughtful. "I wonder if that is what it was like for Seventeen and Eighteen..." He shook his head and looked at Saisei. "We need find out what they're up to, put a stop to it, and get out of here." 

Saisei's face was somber. "These dogs killed my family, Yamucha. I will not be content just to thwart them and escape." He knotted his fists as the old anger stirred within him. No. Hatred and vengeance were not part of the Way; he would not surrender to them. Right Thought, Right Mindfulness... 

Saisei calmed. No, hatred was not part of the Way--but justice was. There was something cold and implacable in his voice as he spoke. "Friend Yamucha, it must end now. The Dark Ribbon Army must be stopped, and we will stop it." 

"Whoa! Ten minutes ago I was their prisoner, and now we're ready to take them on ourselves? And what's this 'Dark Ribbon Army' business?" Yamucha scowled, emphasizing the hatched scar on his left cheek. "Any relation to the Red Ribbon Army?" 

Saisei looked puzzled. "I don't know; the Army is named after their leader, a man they call Colonel Dark. He is the other strong one, but his power is hidden; it cannot be sensed. I can only guess at it from a few things he has done. Together, though, we are stronger than either of them." 

Yamucha got to his feet and started running through his own exercises, loosening stiff muscles and joints. "Hmmm... Colonel Dark? That resembles the kind of names the old Red Ribbon used--they were all named by colors--but not quite." 

"Perhaps," offered Saisei, "this Dark Ribbon Army resembles your old Red Ribbon Army, but not quite." 

A noise from below cut off further conversation. A door clanged somewhere; the echoes reverberated off of the pipes all around. The sound of booted feet hurrying thudded on the concrete floor below. 

*      *      *      *

Many stories above Lunch paced around the Command Center. It would be a few hours yet before the attack was launched, and there wasn't anything for her to do yet. She'd checked her weapons, the jetcopter was ready, and she was far too wound up to sit quietly and wait. With everything about to happen, but not happening _yet_ , Lunch was bored. 

Finally she decided that she might as well eat before things got started. As she turned to leave, Lunch glanced at the master console. It was still on. 

Lunch's eyes narrowed as she regarded the console quizzically. What had Jerome been working on? Perhaps he had information on Soliere's project with Yamucha. Lunch pursed her lips and glanced at the monitors. No one nearby.... Lunch smirked as she threw the switch that sealed the Command Center. Now, no one but Jerome could disturb her. 

The blonde woman frowned at the master console. Jerome had stopped in the middle of watching a video: "Cell Games: File 3". Lunch viciously stabbed the rewind key with a long forefinger and started to watch the show. 

*      *      *      *

"Mist," Tao Pie Pie addressed his apprentice through the communicator, "take over the search on Level J for Soliere's missing subjects. Turn the search for the twins and that idiot cat over to Haze. I will escort Soliere to Dock Two for tonight's operation. Over" 

"Yes, sir," crackled Mist's voice. "Over and out." 

Tao Pie Pie turned away from the ruined door of the base's physical plant and returned to Soliere's laboratory. 

"Are you ready?" There was an impatient edge to the assassin's voice; babysitting Colonel Dark's pet scientist was a boring job that earned no bonuses. He would rather be killing someone, preferably a martial artist. Pie Pie liked killing people who thought they were skilled; he liked showing them what skill really was--and collecting a huge fee for it. 

"Yes, yes. I'm downloading the new control programs into firmware now; it will only take a few more minutes to verify them," Doctor Soliere fluttered a hand in Tao Pie Pie's general direction. 

Tao Pie Pie's mouth pursed, looking as if he'd just swallowed something sour. 

Doctor Soliere recognized that look. "Sorry. I know you're not interested in technical details," he said flatly and turned away from Pie Pie's empty machine eyes to busy himself at the computer console. 

Moments later he removed a cartridge from the console and waved it around. "This is it--the attack programs for Gojira, Barugon and Rodan. All I have to do is load it into the master controller at Dock Two, and--POW! The People's Republic won't know what hit them!" Soliere exclaimed with an almost childish glee. 

"Wonderful," Tao Pie Pie said sarcastically as he hurried Soliere out of the laboratory. 

*      *      *      *

"You lying BASTARD!" Lunch raged at the heedless master console screen. "Tienshanhan was alive all this time, and you never told me! You son of a bitch! You're dead, Jerome!" 

Lunch ran down the hall, back into their personal quarters. She dragged a small duffel bag out of her closet and tore through the rooms, tossing all the weapons, jewelry, and money she could find into it. A set of fatigues, blue jeans, t-shirts and sturdy shoes followed. 

For a moment she stared at the nice dresses Jerome had given her, smooth silk and rich satin. Only for a moment; then Lunch ripped them off their hangars and threw them all on the floor in a big pile, except for two mink stoles. Those, she put in her bag. 

Her lips drew back from her teeth in a feral snarl; she jumped onto the pile of fine dresses with both booted feet and stomped and ground the fine cloth under her boots. It wasn't enough. Lunch grabbed two bottles of fine perfume that Jerome had given her and upended them, shaking their contents out on the dresses; then she flicked the gold lighter he'd given her and tossed it on the perfume-stained dresses. The alcohol from the perfume ignited quickly. 

Lunch started away, then turned back and gingerly grabbed the gold lighter out of the merry little fire, then left by way of the secret door into Dark's office. He wasn't there, of course--but his private safe was, and Dark had been careless. It didn't take Lunch more than a few minutes to disarm the alarms and open the safe; many years ago she'd learned how to read a safe combination while across the room and pretending not to look at the person entering it. 

The green-eyed blonde smirked as she quickly riffled through the contents. Numbered bank account books, several hundred thousand zenni in cash, and a box of large, apparently flawless diamonds went into her bag without hesitation. Lunch frowned at the plastic box full of microchips, and the unlabeled mini-CDs--who knew what they were for, or what she could get for them? She shrugged; she could figure it out later, and if Dark had them in his safe, they must be valuable. She tossed them in the bag and zipped it shut, slung her submachinegun at the ready, and marched out of the office. 

Now, where the hell was Dark keeping Yamucha? Probably in the brig down on Level F.... 

*      *      *      *

"Acknowleged. Over and out." Haze wiped the dust off his face with his good hand. Now he was supposed to take over searching the ducts on Level D for a dead cat and two dead midgets while Mist.... While Mist did what? What did Tao Pie Pie want Mist upstairs to look for someone else who'd escaped-- 

Oh shit! Haze thought. Sweat broke out on his brow. That little shit I thought I killed--he's escaped! He must have survived--I forgot to lock the cell door--he just walked out. Shit! Shit! Shit! I've got to take care of this! 

"All right, boys," Haze growled to the squad. "We've been ordered to continue this search on Level F, in the brig area. Get a move on, you slobs!" Haze led the way up the stairs, making sure he had a full load of magazines for his submachinegun. He had a feeling he'd need them soon; there were far too many guys he couldn't trust to keep their mouths shut in the squad. 


	14. Monster Summoning I

The waves slapped lazily at the concrete wharves of Dock Number Two, filling its cavernous interior with a continuous soft echo of slaps and splashes. Dock Number Two was an immense sea cave dug into the side of the rocky headland that protected the island's small harbor. Camouflage nets normally hung down across the entrance, concealing it; from the air, Dock Number Two was just another chunk of cliffside. Concrete wharves lined three sides and another extended down the center; there was space for two good-size ships--or monsters. 

Soldiers lined the outer wharves; a pillbox covered the entrance on either side. The camouflage nets were drawn back, giving a clear view of the harbor and the lower headland across the bay. At the foot of the center wharf, Tao Pie Pie stood with his back to the wall, periodically looking in one direction or the other. On the center wharf, Colonel Dark stood with folded arms, watching as Doctor Soliere fiddled with the cables leading into a desk-sized cube of gleaming black and gold. A laptop computer rested on top of the strange machine. 

"Well?" asked Colonel Jerome Sebastien Dark, one dark eyebrow raised. 

"Gojira heard the recall signal; he should be in range in a few minutes, sir. Rodan is on his way, and Barugon--" 

Water boiled and sloshed back and forth as a monstrous fin emerged from water in the left freighter slip, followed by a long back and an immense, vaguely iguanalike head. Toothy jaws yawned wide enough to swallow a small house and snapped shut; rainbow lights flickered about the huge sailfin cresting the monsters's back. Gold tendrils wrapped about the back of the monster's head glittered in the evening light. 

"--is here," concluded Soliere. 

"Good." Colonel Dark smiled and rubbed his hands together. "Get started, Mathieu". 

"Yes, sir!" Mathieu Soliere grinned and started typing commands into the laptop. "I wish I could increase the range of the programming frequencies--then we wouldn't have to bring the monsters in so close." 

"I don't think so," said Colonel Dark with a certain sardonic finality. "We don't really need some clever meddler re-programming the monsters remotely. It is enough of a risk to remotely control the pain and pleasure circuits." 

"The monsters would be unmanageable without it," Soliere countered. "None of them are very bright, and they have poor attention spans. Another monster, loud human weapons, interesting sights--anything could distract them from their mission if I did not constantly monitor and correct them. Without this controller," Soliere patted the gleaming black and gold cube, "they would just rampage at random, attacking whatever caught their eye, or they might just lose interest and go home." 

"Or come back and attack us," Colonel Dark observed. 

"I don't think they would do that," Soliere said. "They've been conditioned not to." 

"Of course." 

A shadow crossed the sun and a sudden wind roared across the harbor, whipping up whitecaps and sending soldier's caps tumbling in its wake. Monstrous clawed feet touched down on the low headland across the bay; immense leathery wings folded against the equally immense body of a gigantic pterosaur. It opened its beak and let out an ear-shattering screech. 

"Rodan has arrived." Colonel Dark smiled evilly. 

*      *      *      *

Another clang, and loud shouts; a bright light played across the catwalk Yamucha and Saisei had just left. 

"They're up there!" Someone yelled from the ground; a soldier ran forward and started to climb the ladder. 

"Yamucha-san, can you fight yet?" Saisei and Yamucha lay atop a watertank, looking down at the search party. "I do not think we can keep evading them." 

Yamucha rolled over on his back, his breath coming in harsh gasps. Hauling himself up the water pipes to the top of the tank had taken most of his recently regained strength. 

More soldiers swarmed up the ladder to the catwalk just below and spread out in either direction. A lithe figure in black and green bounded up the ladder; a sword hung in a sheath across her back. 

"Yamucha?" Saisei asked again. 

"Maybe in a little while," the former desert bandit finally admitted. 

Saisei looked his mentor over. "I will get you that little while," he said. He reached up, grabbed a water pipe, and hauled himself up. 

The water pipes crossed over the catwalk a short distance away; Saisei silently crawled along the top of them until he was just above an unsuspecting soldier. 

The man never knew what hit him. The soldier was still falling as Saisei spun and kicked his nearest companion, who didn't have time to reach for his gun. Neither did the soldier on his opposite side. Saisei dashed toward a small knot of three soldiers; they had time to raise their weapons, but no time to use them before Saisei was among them. 

One, two, three, they went down; the last man spasmodically jerked the trigger as he fell, sending a short stream of bullets into the ceiling. Saisei kicked the gun away, and glanced back. The gunfire had attracted attention; the girl in black and green and two other soldiers came back around the bend in the catwalk. Saisei dove over the side as they raised their submachineguns and fired. 

The two soldiers dashed to the spot where Saisei had disappeared and looked over; there was no one below. 

"What the--" one of them exclaimed, only to be cut off as Saisei reached from beneath the catwalk and yanked the man's ankles out from under him. He sent his companion stumbling against the rail as he fell; Saisei flipped himself up and over the rail and on to the catwalk. 

The girl in black and green stood back and drew her sword. Saisei caught the stumbling man under the chin with his elbow; the soldier slumped bonelessly to the catwalk atop his companion. A well-placed kick stilled the other man's struggles, and Saisei faced the girl with the sword. 

Black hair drawn back and tied in a ponytail fully revealed the delicate lines of a hauntingly familiar face. Green almond-shaped eyes narrowed as Mist stared at him. 

"My master wants you alive, for the moment, so you may surrender now," she said cooly, raising her sword. 

Saisei just stared at her. He knew her; how could he not know the face he'd seen in his nightmares every night for nine years? 

"Ayomara? How?" 

The girl's eyes widened. "Don't call me that! I am Mist!" 

Saisei blinked. "Mara-chan! Don't you know me? It's me, your little brother Habotan!" 

Mist drew back, lowering the tip of her sword into guard position. "That's impossible! My brother is dead--I saw him die!" 

She lunged suddenly. Saisei dodged, and dodged again as her blade swung back in a return strike. Mist's sword flashed as she feinted and thrust; Saisei dodged every blow. 

"I know your name: Ayomara; our father was Takashi, and mother was Osako and our village was Irie Gyoson and I was born Chou Habotan," he said, still dodging her furious blows, "and you have a birthmark in the shape of a fish--" Instead of dodging, Saisei deflected her thrust and slashed his hand down, across her chest, tearing her blouse apart, "--here!" 

Mist leaped back, momentarily revealing a wine-colored mark in the shape of a carp marring her left breast. She clutched at her blouse, holding it together. "Tan-kun? But I saw them shoot you--you are a ghost! Why have you come back?" Her gaze momentarily traveled to the shattered golden fragments of the control harness still clinging to Saisei's head. "No, you cannot be a ghost, you are real! But how?" 

"Haze and his friends did not do such a good job; I got away in father's little boat," Saisei said. "A fisherman found me drifting." His eyes narrowed in anger as he started at Mist. "I thought you were dead long ago; instead you have joined these beasts!" Saisei spat on the grillwork between them. " _Why do you serve our father's killers?_ " 

Mist blanched. "No! Habotan, you don't understand--I had no choice! The women were..." Mist backed away. 

Saisei let his breath out in a long sigh. "You are right; I do not understand--but that is for later. For now--leave these beasts! Come with me, help me pay these bastards back for everything they did to us and to our village!" 

Mist shook her head sadly. "You are too late; I swore obedience to my master and I cannot defy him. He is too strong. Habotan, forget you met me! Your sister Ayomara is long dead; remember her fondly." A swirl of dark hair, and Mist was gone, vanished down among the pipes and tanks. 

"Ayomara!" Saisei shouted. He looked down, up, and in all directions. No one and nothing moved. 

"Your 'master' dies," Saisei vowed. "I will see you free." 

*      *      *      *

Lunch stared at the dead and unconscious soldiers sprawled about the Level F guardpost. She glanced about warily, and drew the bolt on her submachinegun back, cocking it. 

"What the hell happened?" She asked no one in particular. "Did the prisoners escape?" 

Lunch picked up a battered logbook from a collapsed desk. "Uh-huh. Haze signed in with 'Subject #12', for the brig." She let the book fall. "Who's 'Subject #12'? Yamucha, or the cute young fellow?" 

The blonde grinned fiercely. "I think I'll just go and find out." 

A few minutes later she nudged the cellblock door; it swung open. The green-eyed vixen raised one eyebrow and looked warily in either direction. Nothing moved; the cellblock guards were also unconscious or dead. 

*      *      *      *

"AAA-CHOO!" Puar's sneeze echoed hollowly in the air duct. She sneezed again. "We've been all over this place and I can't find them anywhere!" Tears brimmed up in her eyes and ran down her face, mingling with the dirt and dust covering the bedraggled blue and grey cat--now mostly grey and grey. 

"Not everywhere," pointed out the equally bedraggled twin kami. "We haven't been to the bottom floor," they chorused. 

Puar gulped. "That's dangerous; we might follow the ducts all the way into the furnace if we took a wrong turn!" 

The tiny girls shrugged in unison. "Then your friends are gone where we cannot find them. We are sorry, but we cannot think of any place else to look." 

Puar sat down and tried to wash some of the grime off. "Let's go back to the cells downstairs," Puar finally said. "Maybe we can find some clue." 


	15. Surprise Encounters

Yamucha climbed down the pipes from the top of the water tank and dropped down beside Saisei. He flexed and stretched stiff muscles, and then bounced fully erect. 

"I think I'm okay, now." The older fighter looked expectantly at Saisei. 

"We have to go up to get out of here," Saisei said, "but the way will most certainly be guarded." 

"So? I don't think they have anyone who can stand up to us in a fair fight. They only caught us by a dirty trick in the first place," Yamucha answered confidently. 

Saisei nodded slowly. "That makes sense; why else would they go to such efforts to keep us from being able to use our true strength?" 

"Still, we don't have to do what they expect," Yamucha grinned and pointed at the air ducts running along the high ceiling. 

Saisei smirked in a way that raised the hairs on the back of Yamucha's neck, and leaped to the top of the water tank again, and from there bounded from conduit to pipe to pipe until he reached the air ducts. He quickly tore a hole in the insulation-wrapped sheet metal wide enough to admit a broad-shouldered man and crawled into the dark duct. 

"Umm, yeah." Yamucha levitated up to the pipe and crawled after Saisei. 

*      *      *      *

After they found the first group of dead guards on Level C, Haze's squad did not need to be warned; they moved cautiously, covering each other, checking each door and corner as if they were all booby-trapped. Haze cursed under his breath; they were _too_ cautious for his purposes. 

"Clean this mess up, and look sharp!" Haze barked. "The bastard's around here somewhere, and we're going to bag him!" 

"Ain't you going to report this?" asked his second-in-command, a grey and tan Vargr, or wolf-man, of medium height. One clawed finger rested lightly on the trigger of his submachinegun. 

Haze glared at him. "If I report this, Mist or one of the others will chase the bastard down and get all the credit... and the bonuses! Maybe you want to give away yer extra pay to a bunch of slackers that might be closer to the man than we are--but I'm not!" 

The wolf-man growled. "Yeah, if you put it that way... forget I mentioned it." He moved his finger off the trigger of his weapon. 

Haze's gaze flicked around the room. "That goes fer the rest of you, too. Got it?" 

The soldiers nodded and grunted their assent, and Haze used his good hand to push open the unlocked steel door leading into the brig area. 

Haze cursed again when they found the dead guards at the cell block guardpost. These guys had all been trained, heavily armed guards--how had one helpless, tortured prisoner done all this? He ran toward the cell he'd left Saisei to die in. 

Someone else stood there, looking in--a lithe figure in grey fatigues with blonde hair tumbling down to her shoulders. 

"Lunch!" snapped Haze, lowering his gun. "What are you doing here?" 

She turned her head slowly to regard Haze with peridot-green eyes. Lunch's eyes narrowed as she looked him over; her forefinger rested on the trigger of the submachinegun slung under her arm. 

"I was going to ask you the same thing, Haze. What _did_ you do here? The logbooks say you brought 'Subject #12' to this cell; who was that? What happened to him?" Lunch's voice was even, and her words were very crisp and precise. 

Haze smirked. "Number twelve was that kid who was with Yamucha. The doc wired him up, but they decided to use Yamucha instead, so I put him in his cell. He must have escaped." 

Lunch's eyes narrowed still further. "'Wired him up'?" 

Haze shrugged, paying little attention to Lunch's moods. "You know, with the monster control harness. Doc was playing with the pain circuits earlier; you should have heard the boy scream! Him and Yamucha both, let me tell ya!" 

Lunch started slightly. "There's blood in the cell," she said, eyeing Haze narrowly. 

Haze smirked. "Yeah, well, I had some fun with the boy after I put in him in his cell. A little payback for this," Haze lifted his broken arm in its sling. 

"And Yamucha?" Lunch was breathing oddly fast. 

Haze shrugged again. "Like I said, the doc was working on him last I saw. Had him screaming real well, too." 

Almost too fast for Haze to see, the muzzle of Lunch's submachinegun whipped up and across-- 

"YOU BASTARD!" Lunch shouted-- 

Her submachinegun blazed; the sheer impact of the heavy slugs knocked Haze sprawling. Then Lunch traversed the room, blasting away at the rest of Haze's men. Blood coated the walls as men and creatures fell bleeding against them and slid to the floor. At last, all was silent. 

"You're dead, Jerome," was all Lunch said as she ejected the spent clip and dropped it on Haze's punctured chest. 

*      *      *      *

Puar gasped and covered her mouth with one fat paw. "Oh, my! Did you see what Lunch did?" 

The twins peered over Puar's shoulder at the view through the ventilation grill. "Yes, she killed them all," they whispered. 

"Eeep!" Puar squeaked very quietly. "I think it would be safer to search the lowest floor after all." 

"Very wise," agreed the twins as they floated down the duct. 

A few minutes later and one floor lower, Puar stopped. She crouched low and pricked her ears, listening intently. 

"What is it?" asked the goddesses. 

"I heard a funny noise," answered Puar. "There's something clunking just around the bend." 

"Isn't that where the fan is?" they chorused. "Perhaps it was turned back on." 

"I don't think so," said Puar. "I pulled the wires out. I'll go ahead and check." Puar floated forward into the dark. 

"EEEEP!" A face loomed in front of Puar; in sheer fright the cat zoomed straight up-- 

CLONK! Puar's head smacked hard against the top of the duct; in a daze, the magical cat tried to dart away, only to bump into a warm human body. She panicked, lashing out blindly with her claws. 

"Puar?" someone exclaimed, rolling about trying to avoid the panicked cat. "Puar! Stop that! Cut it out! PUAR!" 

Puar froze. "Saisei?" She stretched out and sniffed. "Is that you?" 

"Yes. Yamucha is here, too." 

"Puar?" Yamucha's voice echoed faintly beyond Saisei in the dark duct. 

"YAMUCHA!" Puar squeaked and hurried forward, wriggling over and past Saisei. 

"Oof!" said Saisei as the heavy cat stepped on his wounded stomach. 

"Puar!" Yamucha greeted his enchanted feline companion happily. 

"Puar?" asked two distant voices in chorus. "What is happening?" 

"Who is that?" Saisei hissed. He rolled over and peered forward, trying to see what lurked in the dark. 

"It's okay, they're friends," Puar said cheerily. She climbed back over Saisei and called down the duct. "Come on, it's Yamucha and Saisei!" 

A dim glow heralded the arrival of Puar's new friends; Saisei gaped in astonishment and awe at the tiny women. Introductions were quickly made between Yamucha and Saisei on the one hand, and the Twin Kami of Kyojin-shima on the other. 

"Yamucha! We have to stop them--they're sending monsters to destroy a city!" Puar exclaimed. 

"WHAT--Oww!" Yamucha banged his head against the top of the duct. "Tell me what's going on, but first let's get out of this pipe!" 

A few minutes later, the bedraggled crew climbed down from the ventilator grill in the ceiling of Cellblock Two's main corridor. 

Yamucha looked around at the grim remnants of Haze's squad. "What the hell happened here? And what about monsters?" 

"Lunch did this," Puar said reluctantly. "She was angry..." 

Saisei had yet to say a word; he smiled coldly as he looked down at a certain corpse with a bandaged arm still slung across its chest. "Whose side is this Lunch on?" He glanced at Yamucha. "First she captures us, then she kills... someone who needed killing." Saisei nudged Haze's corpse with his foot. 

Yamucha looked sharply at Saisei, hearing the cold anger underneath the youth's relatively mild words. There was no mistaking the hardness in Saisei's eyes, nor the cold satisfaction in his smile. He smiles like Vegeta, Yamucha realized, and then shivered. He didn't used to do that! 

Yamucha realized something else. "He's the one who was with Lunch, at the bar--your enemy," Yamucha said, looking hard at Saisei. 

"Yes. He was one of them, the butchers of my village." The cold smile faded from Saisei's face, replaced by his usual seriousness, and the hardness in his eyes turned to sadness. "But what is Lunch?" 

"Right now, I don't know." Yamucha ran his fingers through his hair. "She's always run on the wrong side of the law, but she hasn't done anything truly evil before. Maybe she just now found out what kind of people she's been working for." 

Puar hovered, growing increasingly impatient. "Yamucha! That's not important--you have to stop the monsters!" 

"What? Right. Uh, what monsters?" asked Yamucha. 

"Gojira, Barugon and Rodan," chorused the tiny women, who landed gently on Yamucha's shoulders. "They will be sent to destroy the capital of the Northern People's Republic. We have called Mothra, but he will not get here before they leave, and he will have to fight very hard to stop all three of them. They also control Megalon and Reptilicus, who guard this island, and it may be that Mothra will have to fight them before he can stop the other three. You must stop them!" 

"Five giant monsters; right." Yamucha curled his hands into fists. "What's the quickest way out of here?" 

"This way," Saisei said, stepping over Haze's corpse. "This level is mostly laboratories and this prison; below us are huge garages and warehouses full of soldiers. If we are lucky, the soldiers will have left by now; they were getting ready for something." 

"And if _they_ are unlucky, they'll still be in our way," Yamucha said with a cocky grin. "I got you; garages have to have an outside exit." 

"You can stop all five monsters?" the twin kami asked, surprised. 

"Well, it won't be easy if I have to fight all five at once," Yamucha said as they walked down the hall. "Even fighting three at once, I won't be able to fight fair. I'll probably kill most of them." 

The twins' eyes widened in horror. "Kill them?? You must not! Megalon protects the Seatopians, and Gojira protects Kyojin-shima! The kyojin are sacred; they defend the Earth." 

"And don't forget Tao Pie Pie!" added Puar. 

"Tao Pie Pie!" Yamucha exclaimed incredulously. "What's he doing here?" 

"He's one of their leaders," Puar exclaimed. "We heard him giving orders about the monsters!" 

Yamucha thwacked one hand against the other. "I can take him..." He frowned suddenly, "...but not if I have to fight the monsters at the same time." 

Saisei glanced abruptly at Yamucha. "Don't worry about him; he's mine." 

Yamucha raised one eyebrow. "You're good, kid, but Tao Pie Pie was the best student of Tsuresennin--the Crane Master--Kamesennin's only real rival. He used to be one of the best--he even beat Goku the first time they fought, and that was after Goku had trained with Kamesennin. I'm not Kamesennin, and you're not Goku. You wouldn't stand a chance." 

"Ah. I was right--he _is_ a master of the Crane School," Saisei said with a confident smile. "But you are wrong, honored sensei--I do have a chance. I have already fought him once." 

"WHAT??" 


	16. Trouble on the Waterfront, Redux

A vast reptilian shape strode through the waters of the bay toward the sea; it paused to throw its head back and scream at the darkening sky, a harsh metallic screech that grated the nerves and rang for miles in the still air. It sank into the deepening water until only the great ridged plates on its back were visible, then it began to swim. 

At the end of the wharf, a grey-uniformed officer of the Dark Ribbon lowered the binoculars he'd been looking through and saluted Colonel Dark. 

"Sir! Gojira has cleared the headland." The officer nervously tapped the headset draped over his head, awaiting his commander's response. 

Colonel Dark smiled with satisfaction. "Good. Notify the captains of the _Dark Field_ and the _Shadow Warrior_ that they can move their ships from Dock Three to Dock One now. It's time to get them loaded up." 

"Yes, sir!" The officer saluted again, and spoke rapidly into his headset as Colonel Dark turned away. 

Colonel Dark strode over to the controller and its operator, Doctor Soliere. "Matheiu, I have changed the plan slightly. The attack force will _not_ strike random civilian targets after our objective has been attained--I wish to rule a nation, not an ash heap. Your latest estimates for recall time are excessive." 

"Ah, Jerome, you knew there would be some delay in determining just when my subjects have accomplished their objectives. It would be disasterous to recall them prematurely!" The short, brown-haired scientist fluttered his hands anxiously. 

"Pie Pie's best estimate results in thirty- to fifty-thousand military and civilian casualties in reducing the High Command, the Army and the Politburo. That is acceptable, as most of them would be my enemies in any case." Dark raised one finger. "Leaving the monsters unchecked for the amount of time you now believe it will take to confirm our success and recall them could result in up to half a million casualties, as well as substantial damage to the capital's infrastructure and industrial base. That is not acceptable. I cannot build an army of conquest from corpses and rubble." 

"But--" Soliere spread his hands anxiously. 

"It is very simple; you will remain here at the controller with Tao Pie Pie to, ah, assist you, and I will take a chase vehicle after the monsters and monitor their progress myself, and notify you when they should be recalled." Dark whirled to face the other officer. "Lieutenant Fogg, when you are done with that, notify the airfield that I will need my jetcopter very shortly." 

"Yes, sir!" 

An expression of dismay spread across Soliere's face. "But that's extremely dangerous, Jerome! My subjects will be in combat, and any small aircraft will be a target--especially for Rodan! He's programmed to destroy the People's Air Force!" 

Jerome Sebastien Dark smiled with cool amusement. "I appreciate your concern, Mathieu, but the risk is mine to take. This is the critical battle! Once I am the ruler of a nation, the Dark Ribbon Army ceases to be a band of terrorists and criminals--it becomes the legitimate security force of the state. Then, I will be the lord of a sovereign nation, and untouchable save by war of nation against nation--and those pacifists to the south would never dream of starting one!" Colonel Dark's blue eyes glittered, and one hand was half-raised in a fist. 

"JEROME, YOU WORM!" An enraged shout interrupted Dark's dreams of conquest; soldiers dove to either side as Lunch strode in the main door, an automatic rifle brandished in each hand. "YOU'RE DEAD!" 

"Eh?" Dark's head turned toward the shout. "Lunch! What is it now?" He strode toward the door and Lunch. 

"Hmmmm." Tao Pie Pie's cybernetic eyes whirred, focussing on Lunch, and the knife blade in his artificial hand snicked open. A cruel smile crossed his face. 

Lunch jerked back on the triggers of her guns, sending bullets spraying about the immense covered dock. The few soldiers who hadn't already sought cover dove behind the nearest solid objects. 

"YOU LYING BASTARD!" she screamed, forcing the gun muzzles to point in Dark's general direction. "DIE! JUST DIE!" 

Soliere cowered behind the controller; Tao Pie Pie simply dodged the bullets that would have hit him and ignored the rest. Dark did not deviate from his path, nor change his pace; a gentle glow surrounded him, and the bullets that struck him seemed to rebound harmlessly. 

"Lunch! Cease fire!" he snapped commandingly. "I do not have time for your random fits of temper right now!" As he spoke, Dark walked up to her and snatched both guns away. 

"You bastard!" she hissed. "You LIED to me! Tienshenhan is NOT dead!" 

Jerome Sebastien Dark raised one raven-dark eyebrow. "Ah. You've seen the Cell Game videos. Now I understand." He smiled at her. "My dear Lunch, has it occurred to you I am a jealous man? It was petty of me, I know, but when I discovered that your former lover still lived, I was too jealous to tell you. I wanted no rivals for your passion, just as you have no rivals for mine." 

Lunch relaxed slightly, and her scowl changed to a mild frown. She looked at him suspiciously. "You're a smooth one. If I mean that much to you...." 

Dark shrugged and smiled tenderly at her. "Forgive me for my fit of jealousy. If you really wish to find Tienshenhan, I will give you everything I have on the man. Come; it's all in the Command Center." 

Lunch still looked skeptical. "Fine! Let's go do that, and you better be telling the truth!" 

"Of course." Dark put one arm around Lunch's shoulder, and with the other signed behind his back to Tao Pie Pie, warning the assassin off. 

As they left, Tao Pie Pie frowned, looking slightly disappointed. There was a "click" as the knife blade retracted into his cybernetic arm. 

"Well," he said, looking around at the cowering soldiers, "don't you fools have something to do?" 

*      *      *      *

Yamucha took a deep breath and let it out slowly, savoring the fresh sea air. "Man, I never thought we'd get out of that hell-hole!" 

Saisei looked up at the building they'd just escaped from, a twenty-five-story office tower that would not have looked out of place in downtown Satan City. Here, alone on the central ridge of the island, it dominated the landscape, looming over the compound and warehouses lining the bay to the southwest--the bay where Saisei's village once stood. Roads ran down to the bay, and away west along the ridge of the island. 

They'd had little trouble escaping; they had found the garages gaping open and empty. 

"Where do we go from here?" Saisei wondered, fiddling with the headset and radio he'd taken from one of the dead soldiers. Yamucha was similarly equipped. "The soldiers drove their tanks and trucks away in both directions." 

Puar squeaked excitedly, "Tao Pie Pie said he was taking the doctor to Dock Number Two. I bet's that's where they are!" 

"Great, all we have to do is find Dock Two," said Yamucha. 

"I do not think that will be too hard," said Saisei as he looked at the large sign planted at the meeting of roads. It said: 

Barracks and Dock #1  
Dock #2  
<\---- 

Airfield  
Dock #3  
\---->  
  
---  
  
*      *      *      *

"HIII-YAAA!" The main doors exploded inward and crashed to the ground, blown off their tracks. Saisei and Yamucha leaped onto the main wharf, both in fighting stance, both facing a great many soldiers. 

Saisei grinned fiercely. "Right!" he yelled. 

Yamucha grinned back. "Left!" 

Light flared in Yamucha's hand as a ball of white energy formed there; then with a yell, he flung into the water in the middle of the left slip. It exploded, flinging torrents of water across the entire eastern half of the cavernous dock. Soldiers were flung into walls or washed along the wharves before coming to a stop, stunned and half-drowned. Some unlucky men didn't come to a stop before being dragged into the water by the backwash; of those, the lucky ones were still conscious and knew how to swim. 

An instant later, Saisei did the same to the right slip, knocking out the startled soldiers gathered in the western half of the dock. 

On the center wharf, Doctor Soliere clung to the black and gold box of the controller, shielding it with his body, and in turn using it as anchor to keep himself from being swept away. Tao Pie Pie leaped high into the air as the waves crashed down to either side and landed in front of Yamucha and Saisei. 

"You are too late," he said, smiling coldly. Cybernetic eyes whirred and focussed first on Yamucha, then on Saisei. "The monsters have already been sent." 

Saisei growled, "This one is mine, friend Yamucha. Only you can stop the monsters; go!" 

"You got it, kid. He's all yours." Yamucha lifted into the air and hurtled out the vast open sea doors of the dock. 

Tao Pie Pie's smile became a cruel smirk as he looked at Saisei. "Another young fool determined to die." Tao Pie Pie's smirk flattened. "A waste of my time, but it won't take long to oblige you." 

Without another word or any ki-aii shout, Tao Pie Pie moved three swift steps forward, graceful as a dancer. One steel hand swept out, as if to balance and enhance the dancer's step--but the hand was tipped with a steel blade and aimed at Saisei's throat. 

Saisei brought his arm across in a block while sliding backwards, out of Tao Pie Pie's reach. It was well that he did so, for Pie Pie's hand slid past Saisei's block, barely missing the young fighter's neck. 

Around and around they went, Tao Pie Pie dancing his deadly ballet and missing Saisei by the narrowest of margins each time. It was all Saisei could do to dodge and block; he couldn't even risk a counterstrike. 

I'm not centered properly, realized Saisei. I want to hurt him too much; thus, I cannot hurt him at all! I am in serious trouble... 

Tao Pie Pie smiled evilly, sensing Saisei's dismay. Every step, every strike forced Saisei back, and back again, until he was at the wall; no more dodging. 

Tao Pie Pie sneered, pivoted on one foot and whirled, lashing out with a savage snap kick to Saisei's head. 

Saisei blocked it. 


	17. Mothra vs....

"WHOA!" Yamucha dodged aside as Rodan's massive beak snapped at him. "You guys aren't listening, are you?" 

Rodan's massive wings flapped up and down as the monster turned its head back toward its intended goal, ignoring Yamucha. Yamucha arced up and above the gigantic pterosaur and its huge passenger. From above, the scarred warrior could see the golden gleam of the control harnesses embedded in each monster's skull. He glanced back, toward the island base. 

Gojira was easy to spot by the huge wake the semi-aquatic monster made as it surged through the water toward the mainland. Rodan, flying faster than most jets, had already crossed the strait and was over the mainland; it headed in a straight line toward the capital of the Northern People's Republic, carrying the monstrous sail-finned dinosaur Barugon. 

"And I'll bet he's programmed to come back and pick up Gojira after he's dropped off his lizard friend," Yamucha said to himself. "That's no good; I'll just have to try harder to get Rodan's attention." 

He darted ahead of the oncoming monster; energy gathered in Yamucha's hands. "Let's see how you respond to a real attack!" 

"SPIRIT BALL ATTACK!" Yamucha flung a blazing white globe of energy straight at the onrushing pterosaur. It exploded about twenty feet from Rodan's nose; the monster screeched once, a high, distressed sound as it wobbled slightly, and then surged forward, through the smoke cloud. 

"Damn! He didn't like that, but he's not turning, either. This doesn't look so good." Yamucha climbed above Rodan's flight path and talked into the radio he'd taken from the Dark Ribbon base. "Puar, can you hear me?" 

"Yes! Yamucha, I can hear you!" the excited voice of Puar crackled in his ears. 

"They're ignoring me completely," yelled Yamucha over the wind. "I can't stop them unless I kill them, and that's getting iffy--there's a lot of houses below Rodan and Barugon now. You and Saisei have to turn off the controller; then I can scare the monsters away!" 

"Yamucha--" A blast of static cut across Puar's answer, and then continued to crackle noisily. 

"Puar, what's happening?" Yamucha shouted. 

Static crackled, but Yamucha could faintly make out a few words. "...Mothra... here.... Twins... songs.. control monsters... Lightning... can't hear you... Try to slow them down!" 

*      *      *      *

"Mothra is here!" The twin goddesses called, and Puar looked up from her perch outside Dock Two. Her eyes widened at the sight of the great moth flying across ocean toward them. 

Vast yellow-gold wings beat with preternatural slowness, driving the big fuzzy-bodied creature through the air at a speed that struck the amazed Puar as being far too fast for such slow wingbeats. Indeed, the great wings seemed to beat too slowly to even keep the giant insect in the air, let alone move it so quickly. 

The two kami stood on the rocks above Puar and began to sing; in response, the great insect turned toward the open mouth of the bay, where two ships were slowly steaming in. 

Others noticed the giant moth as well: across the bay, men boiled out of the vehicles lined up on the road to Dock One, pulling out guns and swivelling tank guns and rockets to face the oncoming monster. 

"Oh my!" said Puar. "What is he going to do? I don't see the other monsters!" 

"Mothra says that Rodan is flying to the northwest, carrying Barugon, and that Gojira is swimming in the same direction," chorused the twin kami. "He will chase them and try to stop them." 

Puar looked at the gathered soldiers with worry. "But..." She pointed one fat paw at the soldiers and the oncoming ships. "What about them? They are going to attack, too. Ask Mothra to stop the ships!" 

The two little goddesses looked at each other uncertainly. "We will ask him," they finally said, and began to sing. 

About that time, Puar's radio crackled--it was Yamucha. She listened, nodded, and tried to answer--- 

KRAK-BOOM! Yellow lightning flashed from Mothra's antenna into one of the ships; smoke billowed up. More lightning flashed and boomed from Mothra's antenna, lashing the other ship-- 

"Oh, no! I can't hear Yamucha!" Puar exclaimed. "We have to go in and turn off the remote controller so Yamucha and maybe Mothra can stop the monsters, but I don't know--" 

Again, Mothra's lightning crashed into one of the ships, now billowing smoke but still making headway. It vanished into a cloud of black smoke-- 

Something roared, and Mothra's lightning flashed down again. A huge dragon-like head on a long snaky body reared out of the smoke and water and roared again; it swung its head toward Mothra and spit a huge glob of vile green goo at the giant moth. 

Reptilicus had risen to battle. 

*      *      *      *

The first crack of thunder sounded while Colonel Dark was showing Lunch his extensive files on the Cell Games participants and other individuals that he or Dr. Gero had considered dangerously powerful. He looked up in consternation at the interruption. 

"Sir? I think you should see this," called one of the Command Center guards from the large window. Dark frowned and strode over to the window; this particular window was one of several large windows that ringed the Command Center and commanded a view of the harbor and everything in it. 

"Bloody hell!" Colonel Dark cursed as the giant moth attacked _his_ ships. Two long strides took him to the master console, where he flipped up a red cover, pressed the button beneath, and typed in a passcode. Dark then lifted a microphone and keyed it. 

"Attention! This is your commander; Reptilicus and Ebirah are active; go to General Quarters. I repeat, Reptilicus and Ebirah are active; go to General Quarters. This is _not_ a drill." 

He looked over his shoulder at Lunch. "Take command of the ships at Dock Three; I want those ships and the troops on them to go directly across the strait, with the island between them and this... monster mash. Our big three are still on target and I will _not_ lose all my troops to a giant moth!" Not waiting for her acknowledgement, Dark turned on his heel and left. 

Lunch's eyes narrowed to glittering green slits. "Fat chance, buster!" she muttered to herself. Quickly she made copies of all the files before stuffing the disks in her vest and running for the stairs. 

*      *      *      *

Mothra's lightning danced along Reptilicus's flank; the enraged giant reptile bellowed with pain and submerged, only to surface again and spit green mucus at Mothra. Mothra's slow wingbeats couldn't turn fast enough to entirely dodge Reptilicus's attack; the green goo clipped the trailing edge of Mothra's left wing, burning a hole through it. Mothra's wings already had three other such holes. 

Fresh green scales showed where the lightning burns on Reptilicus's flanks had healed. Suddenly, the great lizard dove deep, beyond Mothra's sight and reach. Only the slow wingbeats of the huge insect echoed across the bay as Mothra laboriously climbed and turned. The sinking ships still burned near the mouth of the bay. 

The ocean heaved as Mothra crossed back across the bay; Reptilicus surged from the depths, leaping high into the air, great jaws snapping at the monstrous moth. Mothra's wings beat frantically as Reptilicus's jaws grazed the huge insect's abdomen; yellow dust showered down on the dragon-like lizard. Yellow lightning flashed, and Reptilicus fell back down with nothing more than a few yellow hairs protruding from between his teeth. 

*      *      *      *

Puar watched the fight wide-eyed, then looked at the entrance of Dock Two. Soldiers blocked the way, soldiers armed with rifles and grenades and other weapons, but they were watching something inside. 

"Hey," Puar called the little goddesses, "we have to get in there and turn off the controller!" 

The twins, who had been watching the fight between Mothra and Reptilicus with growing horror, turned as one to face Puar. "You are right," they said, "for then we may sing to all the monsters." 

"After I change, get on my back," Puar said. There was a *poof* and a large blue and grey Triceratops stood where a cat had been once before. 

The twin kami looked wide-eyed at the dinosaur for a moment, and then levitated up on to her back and perched just above and behind the armored neck frill. The powerful dinosaur snorted and pawed the ground. 

A few soldiers finally noticed them, and started pointing at them and shouting. Too late; Puar the Triceratops charged! 

Soldiers dove frantically out of the way, or were knocked flat as the truck-sized dinosaur charged into the enclosed Dock. Inside, more soldiers jumped up to stop the intruder, then jumped aside as they saw what the intruder was. Puar tossed her horned head, flinging slow-moving soldiers this way and that-- 

Light flickered and flashed as two forms moving too fast for Puar to follow collided, struck, blocked, dodged, rebounded. Saisei and Tao Pie Pie battled across the cavernous Dock, leaping high into the air, landing now and again on either wharf or just hanging in mid-air, exchanging blows so fast that their fall seemed to be a gentle drift downward like autumn leaves floating on a breeze. Soldiers cowered behind crates and machines, or simply stood gaping at the incredible battle. 

Suddenly the figures sprang apart and dropped down onto opposite wharves, facing each other. Both panted for breath. Tao Pie Pie's fine coat was tattered and blood-stained; Saisei's bare chest showed half a dozen bleeding slashes. Saisei grinned at his enemy. 

Tao Pie Pie scowled at that and he curled his hands together. 

"DODON-PA!" White energy flashed toward Saisei, who crouched and swung his arm at the blast, flicking it away with a gesture oddly like that of a batter hitting a ball. Saisei's grin widened; he had the measure of his opponent, and Tao Pie Pie was the weaker man. 

Tao Pie Pie turned his head then, noticing the dinosaur battering its way across the base of the wharves-- 

Saisei's eyes narrowed. "SPIRIT BALL!" 

He leaped high, tossing a blazing white sphere of energy at Tao Pie Pie. His inattentive enemy glanced back as well-honed senses warned him of the danger; Tao Pie Pie jumped to one side, trying to dodge-- 

WHOOOM! The ball exploded, flinging dust and smoke and water everywhere. Saisei dove into the heart of the smoke cloud-- 

Puar the Triceratops bellowed and charged down the central wharf; she'd finally spotted Doctor Soliere and the machine he was using. 

"Noooo!" screamed Soliere; he grabbed a rifle away from the stunned soldier beside him. Pointing the gun at the charging Triceratops, he jerked back on the trigger-- 

BANG! Puar the Triceratops flinched slightly but didn't stop; a small hole appeared in her armored frill, low and on the left. 

The mundane sound of gunshots seemed to wake the soldiers from their incredulous stupor; several Dark Ribbon troopers unslung rifles and started to raise them to their soldiers. 

BANG! Soliere fired again as Puar ran him down; he stumbled as he dodged to one side. Puar staggered; blood poured out of her left shoulder. As Soliere scrambled to his feet, Puar tossed her head and bellowed in pain--and her long horns caught Soliere across the chest and flung him into the slip. 

Soliere hit the water with a tremendous splash and flailed about wildly. "HELP ME! I CAN'T SWIM!" 

Puar collapsed, changing as she crumpled; a small, plump blue and grey cat huddled, bleeding on the wet concrete. The two kami looked at each other, and for the first time, separated. One leaped onto the controller and began to pull and stand on various levers; the other knelt beside Puar, holding the wounded cat's head and singing to her gently. 

"HIII-YAAA!" Tao Pie Pie's limp body careened across the Dock, only to be met by Saisei's follow-up blow. The hammer blow across the assassin's back sent him smashing into the hard concrete of the center wharf. He did not get up. 

The advancing soldiers stopped in shock as Saisei landed lightly beside the fallen assassin. He was panting hard, but a wicked grin adorned his face. 

"Who's next?" Saisei asked, smirking. 

The soldiers ran. 

"Saisei, can you help us?" chorused the little goddessess. "Puar is hurt, and we do not know how to turn off the machine." 

Saisei's eyes widened, then narrowed at the sight of the wounded cat. "Puar! Bastards!" he hissed. "I know how to turn off the cursed machine. Stand aside!" 

The twins looked at each other; the kami standing on the controller floated down beside her sister. 

Energy gathered in Saisei's hand; he drew his arm back and pitched a seething ball of energy like a fastball straight across the plate. Strike! 

WHOOM! The controller exploded, sending parts flying like shrapnel everywhere. 

WHAAM! A second explosion echoed, this one from outside. 

The little goddesses screamed. "Mothra is dead! Mothra is dead!" 

"What the--?" Saisei looked up-- 

_Something_ rushed in like a grey thunderbolt to smash into Saisei. A powerful blow flung him across the entire Dock to crash into the unyielding concrete wall. Only Yamucha hits so hard, thought Saisei as he strugged to hang on to consciousness. 

He was wrong. 

Colonel Jerome Sebastien Dark hovered in mid-air above the central wharf, blue-white energy glowing in his right hand, his dark grey coat fluttering slightly in the hot wind from outside. His blue eyes glittered and his fine mouth was drawn tight with anger. 

"You should not have done that!" he said. 


	18. ... vs. Dark

Yamucha peppered Rodan with small ki-blasts again, hoping to slow or distract the gigantic pterosaur. Again, Rodan waggled its head and coursed on-- 

\--only to swerve abruptly with a raucous screech. Rodan screamed again and abruptly dropped Barugon. Barugon snapped open sleepy eyes and bellowed his displeasure at finding himself falling from ten thousand feet. 

Rodan looped vertically; Yamucha suddenly found himself looking _up_ at the winged monster diving down on him with mouth open. With surge of power, Yamucha dodged just in time as the monstrous beak crashed shut behind him. 

"Whoa! What happened?" 

Far below, Barugon cratered into the ground and lay stunned. Rodan flipped one wing down and pivoted in mid-air; Yamucha found himself facing the enraged monster again. A red beam of energy sliced through the air only to be dodged by the agile warrior. 

"I get it--Puar must have shut off the controller! You're pissed at me, aren't you?" White power flared in a corona around Yamucha as he hurtled high into the air--ten thousand, fifteen thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand feet. Below him, Rodan dove steeply and pulled up abruptly, zooming after Yamucha. 

"Let's see if I can convince you to go somewhere else!" Energy gathered in Yamucha's hands as he hovered, watching the monster climb towards him. Ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-eight thousand feet--Rodan's zoom had petered out and the great pterosaur was flapping its mighty wings hard to reach Yamucha's altitude-- The great beak gaped open, and Yamucha could sense the power gathering behind Rodan's eyes... 

"SPIRIT BALL ATTACK!" Yamucha flung down a ball of white energy twice again as large as himself. Before Rodan could launch its own attack, the ball exploded just above its nose. 

Rodan screeched in pain and rage as he fell away, trailing smoke. Yamucha could see the scorch marks on its beak as the gigantic pterosaur dove and turned, heading away from the interior, back out to sea. 

Far below, Barugon's eyes flickered open; the huge sail-finned lizard heaved himself out of the crater dug by his fall and staggered back towards the sea. 

"Now what?" wondered Yamucha. "They're all heading back where they came from!" The scar-faced warrior reflected briefly on his own treatment at the hands of Doctor Soliere and grinned fiercely. "I bet they don't have fond memories of the Dark Ribbon base, either--oh, crap! Puar and Saisei are there, too! I've got to get them out of there!" 

*      *      *      *

Two thoughts dominated Saisei's mind as he painfully dragged himself erect. One thought was calm, if apprehensive: I am in serious trouble. I can't sense his ki! How can he be that powerful without showing any of it? The other thought was less calm: It's _him_! Their leader--the man in the grey coat... those blue eyes that watched while his troops murdered everyone I knew! He's the one! 

Dark regarded the bloody, broken body of Tao Pie Pie thoughtfully. "I'm impressed; I thought I had files on everyone who could do that. A pity; but his apprentice can replace him." He glared at Saisei. "What cannot be replaced is the time and effort you just cost me. Do you know how many years it took to tame those monsters?" Dark raged. "Do you know how many years it took to build this base and gain the trust of the People's Republic? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE COST ME?" 

"No," growled Saisei, wiping blood away from his eyes, "but I know what you cost _me_ , you murdering bastard!" Power flared in a transparent white corona around the young man as he pushed off from the wall, straight at Colonel Dark. 

Dark's eyes widened in surprise; he brought one arm up to block Saisei's blow. "Who the hell are you?" Dark asked as Saisei's blow slammed into his arm. 

Dark's block was clumsy, absorbing the full force of Saisei's blow instead of deflecting it. His arm should have snapped like a rotten twig. It did not. 

Saisei's arm went numb; he felt like he'd just hit a solid steel bar. Long training sent him spinning away; Dark's roundhouse counter-punch just missed his head. 

He's fast! Saisei thought as he hovered several yards away, watching the uncanny leader of the Dark Ribbon. Not a trained fighter, though. How can he be this fast and powerful and not know how to fight? 

"I think," Saisei panted, "I could ask the same of you, butcher. I am the one who survived when your troops landed on this island and killed my mother and my father and all my family and friends and neighbors. I am vengeance returned." 

"Ah, an angry young peasant out for revenge. I would be amused if you hadn't caused me so much trouble." Colonel Dark smiled coldly. "I doubt my name or ancestry would mean anything to you, nor does it bear on the question you are really asking: where did I get this power? You shall go to your grave wondering; any answer I gave would mean nothing to you. What does a village peasant know of the work of the brilliant cyberneticist Doctor Gero?" 

Saisei's eyes narrowed. He had heard Yamucha mention that name before... "Did Tao Pie Pie have the same 'work' done on him?" 

Dark raised one eyebrow. "You are unusually astute for a peasant. Doctor Gero did not trust Tao Pie Pie as he did me, so the results were commensurately less." 

"You're half-machine, like the assassin!" 

"Oh, much more than half. Does it comfort you to know that before you die? For die you shall." Dark suddenly lunged forward, one hand hooked into a punch. 

Only long training and complete mastery of akijutsu allowed Saisei to turn Dark's blow aside. The would-be tyrant struck far too swiftly for Saisei to dodge; only a perfect block let him survive. Two, three punches Saisei blocked--then came a relentless flurry of swings and punches that Saisei blocked desperately, driven back with every attack. 

Sweat poured down Saisei's brow: how long could he keep this up? If any block was less than perfect, the power behind Dark's blow would shatter the arm that caught it... and he was starting to tire. The fight against Tao Pie Pie had been a tough one, and now this-- 

An unexpected kick slipped past his block and caught Saisei on the left side; he felt ribs crack under the blow, which sent him hurtling to the wharf. Saisei rolled as he tumbled across the concrete, collecting bruises but sparing himself more broken bones. He finally slid to a stop just short of the wharf's edge. 

Saisei looked up just as Dark dropped lightly down to the other end of the wharf. The Dark Ribbon leader smiled cruelly and held one hand out, palm toward. Blue-white energy flared-- 

Saisei rose to a crouch facing him. No! Not this! He could not stand against the king! He froze, awaiting his fate-- 

"ARRHHHH!" Something flashed behind Dark; the android staggered and cried out. His blast flashed wide of Saisei and detonated harmlessly in the water. Behind him, Mist reversed her sword and swung again. 

Dark whirled to face her; the blow intended for his neck sliced open his cheek instead. Saisei could see the long slash across Dark's back that Mist had inflicted; blood soaked into his fine shirt and damaged coat. 

"Bitch!" he snarled--then Dark slammed his fist into Mist's stomach, sending her arcing through the air to hit the wall with bone-cracking force. A ball of white energy followed, catching Mist squarely in the chest as she slid limply down the wall. 

"Ayomara!" Saisei screamed. He leaped toward Dark in a fury of rage and grief-- 

Dark half-turned and thrust his arm toward Saisei; blue-white energy again flared-- 

Saisei shook free from the paralysis that threatened to grip him again. What kind of tailless weakling am I? That's not the king! He's an _enemy_! A cold, controlled fury settled over him; he braced both hands in front of him and caught the seething energy, caught it and flung it upward and away. 

WHOOOMMMM! 

The deflected blast hit the cavern's roof and exploded, blasting a hole through the top of the low seacliff that sheltered the dock. Gravel and rock rained down all around them. Saisei marveled: Yamucha never taught me that technique! 

"Bloody hell!" Dark cursed as he dodged falling boulders. "What does it take to kill you?" 

"More than you've got, human!" growled Saisei. 

ZAACK-WHAAM! 

White light burst from his cupped hands and struck Dark, slamming the Dark Ribbon leader through the back wall of the dock and blasting away several more tons of the low headland that the dock had been dug into. 

Saisei jumped across the wharf to land beside the scorched body of his sister. 

"Ayomara?" With his one good hand he wiped the ashes off her face; her eyes flicked open at his touch. They were seared and blind. 

"Habotan?" she said weakly through cracked, burned lips. "I'm sorry. I thought you were dead...." 

"Shhhh. Save your strength, Mara-chan. It's okay. You're free, now. Tao Pie Pie is dead." He cradled her in one arm; tears ran down his face. How could he lose her so quickly after finding her again? 

"Tan-kun...." Her breath came in difficult gasps. "Hold me! It's so cold, and I can't breathe...." Ayomara's body heaved and she gasped, desperately trying draw in more air. Blood foamed on her lips. Her blind eyes opened wide, and she struggled to sit up--and fell back, sighing gently. 

"MARA-CHAN!" Saisei screamed as the life left her. "No!" He sobbed as he cradled her lifeless body. "No." 

Saisei never knew how long he sat holding her, or how long he would have held her; a thunderous crash and a horrendous screech from outside forced its way into his awareness. He looked out into the bay; things were still happening. 

Gently Saisei laid her on the ground and stood up. His eyes narrowed and he clenched his one good fist; he said nothing, neither curses nor promises, but looked back at the hole where he'd blasted Dark through the wall. Saisei smiled, a terrible and mirthless smile that promised death, and flew after him. 


	19. Monster's Revenge

"Bloody hell! Who is that punk?" Colonel Dark picked himself up out of the trench he'd dug in the hillside-- 

A sudden roar from below caught his attention. He rose into the air and looked over the harbor-- 

"BLOODY HELL!" Dark's eyes widened as he watched an immense draconic form slither onto Dock One and toss men and tanks about like small plastic toys. "Damn that punk for destroying the controller! Now I have to destroy Reptilicus as well." 

Dark hurtled across the bay and hovered high above the rampaging reptile, power glowing in both hands. With a shout, he flung two bolts of energy into the raging monster's head, searing and blinding the monster--but not killing it. 

"Damn." Dark wiped sweat off of his forehead; this would take more power than he'd expected. 

"HIII-YAAHH!" Saisei slammed into Dark's back, sending him plunging toward the sea. Dark righted himself and rose into the air. 

"Stupid punk; you got lucky once," Dark snarled, his aristocratic face flushed with anger. "Now you _will_ die!" Twin spheres of power launched from his hands. 

Saisei nimbly dodged them both-- 

WOOOSHHH!! 

Both Saisei and Dark went tumbling through the air, flung hundreds of yards by the vast winged shape that sliced through the air just above them. An immense beak opened, and voiced an ear-shattering shriek. 

"Rodan! No! This is too much!" Dark snarled. "Only one thing to do..." 

Saisei righted himself just above the low headland enclosing Dock Two. He blinked; Rodan was circling wide, coming back around the island; below, the draconic monster Reptilicus spat globs of acidic slime at knots of fleeing soldiers and vehicles. Still far out to sea, two more gigantic shapes surged through the waves, coming closer with every heartbeat. Above them, a familiar ki drew ahead-- 

"Yamucha! He turned the monsters around!" Saisei grinned triumphantly--then his eyes widened in alarm. In his grief and rage he'd forgotten someone very important. 

"Puar! The twins! They're in danger!" He turned back toward the Dock Two, then looked at Dark again. Dark's back was turned; the Dark Ribbon leader was intent on his rampaging monsters. If Saisei got lucky, he could put Dark down very quickly-- 

\--and Gojira was coming rapidly toward them and Dock Two. Was his revenge worth Puar's life? 

Saisei dove back toward the gaping cavern of Dock Two. 

Colonel Dark, intent on his own course of action, ignored him. He dove steeply down on Reptilicus, darting toward the monster's head and gold tendrils of the control harness. If he could just touch the harness, the punishment circuit would take Reptilicus out of the fight-- 

CRUNCH! 

Something cracked him across the ribs, flinging Dark into the water. He zoomed out of the bay, shaking water out of his hair, to face Yamucha. 

"I don't know what you want, but I figured I wouldn't like it, so I stopped you," Yamucha said jauntily. 

Dark snarled wordlessly at him, and started to summon the power to blast this fool into oblivion--and stopped abruptly as he staggered in mid-air. 

"DAMN IT TO BLOODY HELL!" He was too low on power! His internal power storage was almost exhausted; Dark was running on reserve power only. 

"Whoa!" Reptilicus surged up and snapped at them, forcing Yamucha and Dark apart. Reptilicus' huge head turned to follow Yamucha--and Dark saw his chance. He fled. 

Yamucha dodged back from the huge reptile until he was almost above the cavernous mouth of Dock Two. Had he really seen Saisei flying toward the cave? He didn't remember teaching his student how to fly... 

Dark still had enough reserve power to reach his destination--the main base building, where the backup controller was. If he could get to it and switch it on-- 

A brilliant rainbow arched across the sky and plunged down, just missing the fleeing Dark Ribbon leader--and striking the main base. The entire building vanished in a blinding flash of energy! 

In a series of explosions, the arch of destroying rainbow energy walked down the hill back toward the harbor. Dark glanced back; Barugon and Gojira were swimming into the bay; Barugon's deadly rainbow arced from his back through the air to the locus of destruction making its way down the hill. In a matter of minutes, there would be nothing but gravel left of the entire harbor complex. 

Jerome Dark changed course for the airfield, where the jetcopter he had ordered would be waiting for him. It was time to retreat. 

*      *      *      *

"Whoa!" Yamucha said again as the rainbow arch parted the sky between him and the fleeing Dark Ribbon leader. "These guys are getting a bit frisky! Time to find Puar and Saisei and get them out of here!" 

Yamucha calmed himself and waited, feeling for Saisei's ki. There he was--down and to the left! Yamucha looked that way, and heaved a sigh of relief as Saisei waved to him from the top of the headland. 

He was not so relieved when he alighted beside Saisei and saw the blood-stained blue and grey form cradled gently in the youth's arms. The twin kami stood on the rock beside him, looking up hopefully. 

"Please tell me that's your blood dripping on her," Yamucha implored. 

Saisei shook his head reluctantly. "No; she was shot, but I think she'll be okay if we get her to a doctor soon. The twins looked after her." 

Puar opened one eye. "Yamucha! You're okay! Did we win?" Her voice was weak but steady. 

"Oh, crud! I lost track of their leader when Barugon cut loose!" Yamucha glanced out into the harbor at the great monsters wading ashore. Gojira opened his mouth and screeched his ear-tearing rusty-hinge screech. "I don't think it's safe to stay here, either!" 

"We will sing to them," said the kami, "but without Mothra it is hard for them to hear us. They are very angry right now and will not listen until they have calmed." 

"Right. It's definitely not safe here--Saisei, can you actually fly with Puar? If you can, I'll carry the twin goddesses and--" 

"No, we must stay here," the little goddesses chorused. "The kyojin will not harm us, and we must sing to them and send them home, or they will cause much trouble." 

"Are you sure?" Yamucha asked, one eyebrow raised. 

"Of course. We live on Kyojin-shima with them all the time. They cannot harm us; only human beings can do that. But we thank you for your compassion." The twin goddesses bowed to Yamucha. "Puar will be all right as soon as she has rested, and we thank her, too. She was very kind to us, and freed us from our prison." 

Yamucha bowed to them in return. "You are welcome, ladies." 

The tiny women glanced as one at the harbor, then turned back to Yamucha in alarm. "You must hurry; go now!" 

Yamucha glanced at the looming shape of Gojira. "Yiii! Go, Saisei!" 

Saisei nodded and lifted into the air, swooping down the long backslope of the headland, keeping the rocky prominence between the monsters and his precious burden. Yamucha followed quickly after--and suddenly reversed course. He had almost forgotten.... 

*      *      *      *

As Dark touched down on the airfield with the last of his energy, the jetcopter suddenly spun up its engines from idle to take-off. Dark ran across the field; Lunch was sitting beside the pilot! 

"Not so fast," he said as he wrenched the pilot's door open. "What are you doing here?" Dark asked Lunch as he dragged the pilot out and tossed him heavily to the tarmac. 

"Your pets are a bit big for even me to handle," Lunch chuckled, but there was no matching laughter in her eyes. 

"Yes, they are," Dark said as he stole a glance back toward the harbor at the towering figure of Gojira. He strapped himself into the pilot's seat and took the copter up as fast as it would go. He glanced at Gojira again; it didn't feel fast enough. "How much do you weigh--with all your gear?" he asked Lunch. 

She glared at him. " _Approximately_ 70 kilos," she snapped. 

"More like 80, unless you're out of ammo," Dark corrected. "Eighty kilograms--that's about three percent more climb rate." Almost too fast to see, Dark flipped open her quick-release buckles; then he grabbed Lunch by the shoulder and slammed her against the opposite door, popping it open and pushing her out the tiny cabin. 

"Jerome! YOU BASTARD!" Lunch raged as she fell. 

"Sorry about that. Don't take it personally; I really do care about you, but I care about me even more," he called after her. Relieved of her weight, the copter surged up, gaining altitude even faster; within moments, he would be out of reach of Gojira's searing breath. 

The shockwave of Rodan's passage hit the tiny copter like a brick wall. It tumbled wildly in the turbulence as the blades tried to balance forces they were never designed to handle. They failed in fractions of a second; the rotor hub flew apart a second later, tearing apart the main engine as it went. All the little copter's control surfaces sheared off under the same shock, and the rest of the laminate hull simply disintegrated. 

As quickly as that, Dark found himself plumetting through the air. With the dregs of his reserve energy, Dark righted himself and slowed his fall; it would be a hard landing, but one he could walk away from. 

Then Gojira breathed and proved Dark was not beyond the monster's reach. 

*      *      *      *

"Whoa!" said Lunch as a pair of strong arms caught her. She blinked; Yamucha was holding her. 

"I thought you might still be here somewhere," Yamucha said. 

"Normally I'd kill you for grabbing me like this and holding me _there_ ," Lunch said, glaring fiercely at him. 

They both glanced up as white fire blasted across the sky; something tiny and dark was caught in the blast of Gojira's breath and seared to a flaming cinder that plumetted into the sea. 

"Normally, you would," Yamucha agreed. 

Lunch hooked her arm around Yamucha's neck. "Things aren't normal," she conceded. "Let's blow this joint." 

*      *      *      *

They looked back once. Smoke rose from the eastern end of the island, where Gojira, Reptilicus and Barugon rampaged. Off the northwestern tip of the island, smoke rose from the roiling water; Saisei caught a glimpse of a monstrous red claw gripping the shattered bridge of a ship. It disappeared quickly as another form reared out of the ocean and marched ashore. Megalon smashed his way through Dock Three, exacting his own vengeance as well as the vengeance of the Seatopians. 

As they flew homeward, the last thing they all heard was terrible rusty-hinge screech of Gojira as he roared in triumph... 


	20. Epilogue

Saisei bowed at the dojo's shrine and lit a stick of incense. After placing the incense in its holder, he seated himself before the shrine, legs crossed and arms resting on his knees in the posture of meditation. 

Start with the basics, Saisei told himself. As Master Kobi taught... 

_...Right Thought is also called Right View--the right way to view and understand the world. Wrong understanding occurs when one imposes one's expectations onto things; expectations about how one hopes things will be, or about how one is afraid things might be. Right Understanding occurs when one sees things simply, as they are._

I have tried to ignore what is, Saisei thought, because it did not fit my preconceptions of who I am or ought to be. In the embrace of death, I received knowledge--and rejected it, like a child rejecting his first taste of meat because it is not his mother's milk! That is the Wrong View. 

I was a poor fisherman's son, then I was an orphan raised by the Red Earth Temple. I was also the instrument of vengeance against the Dark Ribbon; I am Yamucha's student and friend. I was also a noble warrior who did many things both good and very evil--and if I wore another body and name then, it matters not. Kale, Habotan... such names are labels for the impermanent flesh, not the soul. 

I am who I am, and that is myself. 

*      *      *      *

#  The End 

**Author's Note:**

> _**Disclaimer:** See [Credits](http://www.republicofnewhome.org/oldlair/writing/credits.html)._
> 
> _Copyright 2001 by Dragoness Eclectic_


End file.
